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282 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Prof. Wyman, who has made numerous careful measure-
ments, that the accuracy of the workmanship of the bee has
been greatly exaggerated; so much so, that whatever the
typical form of the cell may be, it is rarely, if ever, realised.
Hence we may safely conclude that, if we could slightly
modify the instincts already possessed by the Melipona, and
in themselves not very wonderful, this bee would make a
structure as wonderfully perfect as that of the hive-bee. We
must suppose the Melipona to have the power of forming
her cells truly spherical, and of equal sizes; and this would
not be very surprising, seeing that she already does so to a
certain extent, and seeing what perfectly cylindrical bur-
rows many insects make in wood, apparently by turning
round on a fixed point. We must suppose the Melipona to
arrange her cells in level layers, as she already does her
cylindrical cells; and we must further suppose, and this is
the greatest difficulty, that she can somehow judge accu-
rately at what distance to stand from her fellow-labourers
when several are making their spheres; but she is already
so far enabled to judge of distance, that she always describes
her spheres so as to intersect to a certain extent; and then
she unites the points of intersection by perfectly flat sur-
faces. By such modifications of instincts which in them-
selves are not very wonderful—hardly more wonderful than
those which guide a bird to make its nest,—I believe that
the hive-bee has acquired, through natural selection, her
inimitable architectural powers.
But this theory can be tested by experiment. Following
the example of Mr. Tegetmeier, I separated two combs,
and put between them a long, thick, rectangular strip of
wax: the bees instantly began to excavate minute circular
pits in it; and as they deepened these little pits, they made
* them wider and wider until they were converted into shal-
low basins, appearing to the eye perfectly true or parts of
a sphere, and of about the diameter of a cell. It was most
interesting to observe that, wherever several bees had be-
gun to excavate these basins near together, they had begun
their work at such a distance from each other, that by the
time the basins had acquired the above-stated width (i. e.
about the width of an ordinary cell), and were in depth
back to the
book The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Title
- The Origin of Species
- Author
- Charles Darwin
- Publisher
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Location
- New York
- Date
- 1909
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Pages
- 568
- Keywords
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Categories
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Table of contents
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541