As natural selection acts only by the accumulation of slight modifications of structure or instinct, each profitable to the individual under its conditions of life, it may reasonably be asked, how a long and graduated succession of modified architectural instincts, all tending towards the present perfect plan of construction, could have profited the progenitors of the hive-bee?
Hautespen naturalak egitura-edo instintu-eraldaketa txikien metaketaz ez bestez diharduenez gero, haietako bakoitza banakoari dituen bizi-baldintzetan baliagarri zaiolarik, arrazoiz galde daiteke: Nola izan zekizkiekeen onuragarri erle arruntaren arbasoei arkitektura-instintuaren hurrenez hurreneko eta mailaz mailako eraldaketak, guztiak gaur eguneko eraikuntza-plan hobezinera bideratuak?