ORDER HYMENOPTERA. 163 



Looking at the head, which is carried vertically, the 

 compound eyes are seen to be very large, while the three 

 simple eyes (ocelli) are arranged in a triangle on the top of 

 the head. The antennae are slender, and elbowed or bent 

 at the end of the long second joint. The large clypeus 

 is succeeded in front by the short, movable upper lip 

 (labrum). 



The mouth-parts are rather complicated, and it is their 

 complexity or high degree of specialization which for the 

 most part gives the bee and others of its order their supe- 

 rior position over other insects. 



The jaws are rather large, and cross each other in front, 

 and are much as in beetles and grasshoppers, being adapted 

 for biting. On the other hand, the accessory jaws, or max- 

 illae, are different from those of any other insects. They 

 are long and slender, and, with the under lip, bent under 

 the head. They consist of three joints, the last forming a 

 long flat blade. From the second joint arises a minute 

 two- jointed feeler (palpus). 



The under lip is, however, the most peculiarly modified. 

 It consists of three parts; the two outer forming the feelers, 

 and ending in three small joints, while the middle division 

 is the so-called tongue (Fig. 205, /). It is a thin-skinned, 

 long, grooved, very hairy rod, ending in a spoon-shaped 

 button; extending this into flowers, the bee gathers the 

 nectar. The mouth-parts are thus a set of complicated 

 tools, the jaws for biting and for use as trowels in making 

 its waxen cells, the sharp lancet-like maxillae for piercing 

 flowers, and the tongue a sort of writhing, hairy rod, for 

 gathering the sweet liquid secreted at the bottom of flowers. 



The wings are seen to be clear and perfectly transparent, 

 with no scales. They are formed of a clear membrane, 

 hence the name of the order to which the bee belongs, i.e., 

 Hymenoptera, or membrane-winged. The veins are few, 

 irregular, inclosing a few cells. The hinder pair of wings 

 is less than half as large as the front pair. 



The legs are not very long, but very hairy, and the 

 hinder ones have flattened shanks, while the first toe-joint 



