We have many fine upholsterers among my family. I know a variety of bees that do a splendid job. These delicate artisans line their entire brood cells with successive layers of an amazingly delicate membrane that is more lustrous than the most beautiful satin. It even glitters! Just imagine, they use their own tongues as delicate trowels and produce from their own bodies all the upholstery material, a special secretion.

Among the bumblebees or carder bees there is a species that measures no greater than one-half inch. The female gathers material from abroad rather than secreting it from her own body. The material is a soft substance that she gets from various plants. Her delight is to upholster her base of operations. Some species make their cells by lining hollow reeds, empty snail shells or earthworm burrows, and even gun barrels may be upholstered.

We bugs have some marvelous builders. And the way we build is architecturally just right for our needs. Take a familiar example, the cell of a bee’s honeycomb. It is a six-sided structure​—a hexagon. For the honeybee that is the precise shape needed! You see, a six-sided cell holds more honey than a triangular or square one. Also this design gives strength by contact with all the neighboring cells. Of course, the bees know nothing of geometry, and so this example of craftsmanship has been called “the most wonderful of known instincts.”