Charles Darwin in The Origin of the Species, chapter 7, "Instincts", 
has a section labelled "Cell-making instinct of the Hive-Bee". 

The first paragraph starts with " I will not here enter on minute 
details on this subject, but will merely give an outline of the 
conclusions at which I have arrived. He must be a dull man who can 
examine the exquisite structure of a comb, so beautifully adapted to it 
end, without enthusiastic admiration."  And it ends with "But the 
difficulty is not nearly so great as it first appears: all this 
beautiful work can be shown, I think, to follow from a few very simple 
instincts."

He follows with several pages of his and others observations 
manipulating comb and wax and observing how honey bee workers respond 
to the changes, suggesting some very simple principles produce the 
amazingly complex results.

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