BRITISH HIVE- BEE. 



319 



region it expands into the crop or honey-sac. The crop 

 opens by a complicated orifice, with a remarkable stopper 

 arrangement, into the digestive region or chyle stomach, 

 which is separated by a pylorus from the coiled small 

 intestine. The inner wall of the small intestine bears 

 numerous rows of chitinous teeth set in longitudinal ridges, 

 and is perforated by the apertures of the excretory tubules. 

 At the junction of the small with the large intestine there 

 are six brownish plates, perhaps functioning as valves. 



B 



FIG. 157. Nervous system of bee. After Cheshire. 



A. of larva. B. of adult; #., antenna: ;;/.r., maxilla; /., mandible; 

 ?i'., origin of wing ; 1-5, abdominal ganglia. 



In connection with the anterior region of the gut there is a very 

 complicated series of glands. First we have, in the workers only, on 

 either side of the head, a long coiled gland which is intracellular in type. 

 It is largest in the so-called "nurses" which feed the young, and 

 diminishes in size later. According to Mr. Cheshire, this gland secretes 

 a nitrogenous fluid which is furnished to all the larvce in their early 

 stages, but is supplied to the future queen during the whole of the 



