> Not really new, at all, dates back to at least the 1970s

Actually, was already old news in 1864 when this was written:

Nearly thirty years back, when called upon to write the article "Bee" for the Penny Cyclopadia, I endeavoured to show that there was a common principle in action in all insect architecture, viz., that of working in segments of circles; and that, so far as the hive-bee was concerned, the cells of that insect furnished no exception to the rule.

Tile theory propounded by me, in explanation of the form of the cell of the hive-bee, has been objected to by several able naturalists, since it will not serve likewise to explain the hexagonal form of the cell of the wasp or hornet, it being surmised that tlle same laws would govern the form of the cell in both cases.

In 1835, when I wrote the article alluded to, I was not acquainted with certain facts relating to the building of the wasp's nest, and when I learnt that a single female wasp constructed, in the spring time, a nest made up of hexagonal cells, I felt that the objection that had been raised against my views was a very serious one.

The leading idea with me, in respect to the cells of the honey- comb, "as that of a number of insects working simultaneously (or nearly so) in a confined space; but, with the wasp, the case is different, and in fact, as I soon afterwards discovered, is precisely the reverse ; for it is a single insect, in unconfined space, working simultaneously (or very nearly so) at many cells: that is, so far as the nest first formed by the female wasp is concerned."

On the Formationof the Cells of Bees and Wasps. B y G.R. WATERHOUSE F.Z.S., &c.
[Read 7th March, 1864]

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