Note 2 — Chapter IX · INSECT GEOMETRY

There was even the collaboration of several builders. The foundress of the city, the mother, alone at the outset and absorbed by family cares, was able only to make a rough beginning of the roof; but offspring arrived, neuters,2 eager assistants henceforth charged with the continuing and enlarging of the dwelling, in order to provide the one mother with a lodging to contain the whole of her eggs. This gang of paper-makers, coming one by one to take part in the labour, or perhaps working without any common agreement, several at a time, at different points, so far from producing confusion, achieves perfect regularity. By slow degrees the spacious dome of the summit decreases in diameter; by degrees it tapers into a cone and ends in a graceful neck. Individual and almost independent efforts result in an harmonious whole. Why?