GENERAL HISTORY OF BEES. 39 



honey upon the tongue of this bee at a spot where it 

 could be covered by the extremities of the external 

 sheath. I then let these sheaths loose. Sometimes they 

 spontaneously resumed their previous position, and 

 sometimes I assisted them to resume it. The drop of 

 honey which they then covered has in no instance re- 

 turned to the extremity of the tongue ; it has always 

 passed towards the mouth, and doubtless entered that 

 orifice itself. It is therefore very certain that the bee 

 imbibes its honey by lapping, and that it never passes 

 through the aperture which has been supposed to have 

 been seen at the extreme apex of the tongue. Did this 

 aperture really exist, it would be of extreme minuteness, 

 and it did not appear to me possible that a large drop 

 of honey, which I have seen imbibed in a very few 

 instants, could in so short a time have passed by so 

 minute an opening. A further confirmation of the non- 

 existence of this orifice has been given me when, by 

 pressing a tongue towards its origin to compel it to 

 swell, I have detected the liquid which Andrenidse. 

 gave it its extension, but all my press- 

 ing would never make the liquid pass 

 through the extremity, although the 

 pressure has sometimes made it almost 

 rend the membranes, to give it an open- 

 ing to escape by. Having thus passed 

 through the oesophagus into the stomach, 

 it is then regurgitated into its requisite F; g _ Mode of 

 repository upon arriving at home. folding the tongue 



. . , . in repose. 1. In 



The entire proboscis, with all its appen- abnormal bee. 2. 



dages attached, has in the Apidce three dis- 

 tinct hinges or articulations, including that 

 which attaches it by its extreme base to of the tongue 



