> Bees make hexagonal combs. I can't speak to the birds or spiders, but hexagon packing in combs can be explained without endowing bees with mathematical reaso

> Bees make hexagonal combs. I can't speak to the birds or spiders, but hexagon packing in combs can be explained without endowing bees with mathematical reasoning. It's a geometrically efficient structure that they've likely happened upon as a result of collective behavior (large numbers of bees constructing adjacent cells simultaneously). Check out Philip Ball's Shapes for a detailed account of the "accidental" emergence of many complex natural structures.