insects: stings and ovipositors. 125 



CHAPTER VIII. 



INSECTS : STINGS and ovipositors. 



Probably at some period of your life you have been stung 

 by a bee or wasp. I shall take it for granted that you 

 have, and that, having tasted the potency of these war- 

 like insects' weapons with one sense, you have a curiosity 

 to examine them with another. The microscope shall aid 

 your vision to investigate the morbific implement. 



This is the sting of the Honey-bee, which I have but 

 this moment extracted. It consists of a dark brown 

 horny sheath, bulbous at the base, but suddenly diminish- 

 ing, and then tapering to a fine point. This sheath is 

 split entirely along the inferior edge, and by pressure with 

 a needle I have been enabled to project the two lancets, 

 which commonly lie within the sheath. These are two 

 slender filaments of the like brown horny substance, of 

 which the centre is tubular, and carries a fluid, in which 

 bubbles are visible. The extremity of each displays a 

 beautiful mechanism, for it is thinned away into two thin 

 blade-edges, of which one remains keen and knife-like, 

 while the opposite edge is cut into several saw-teeth 

 pointing backwards. 



The lancets do not appear to be united with the 

 sheath in any part, but simply to lie in its groove ; their 

 basal portions pass out into the body behind the sheath, 

 where you see a number of muscle-bands crowded around 

 them : these, acting in various directions, and being in- 

 serted into the lancets at various points, exercise a com- 

 plete control over their movements, projecting orretracting 



