MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



THE TONGUE OF THE HONEY BEE. 



BY PIIOF. A. J. COOK. 

 [Read before the National Bee Keepers' Association, at Chicago, October 21, 1879.] 



The bee is, and has long been, of great importance to the commercial world, 

 and this, together with the fascination inseparable from its study, have led 

 many of the ablest scientists to carefully investigate its structure and habits. 

 Yet I know not if there exists to-day an accurate description of a bee's tongue, 

 and tlie method by which the insect procures its food. 



The literature of the subject abounds in confusion and inaccuracy. The 

 most learned scientists, those usually the most careful and accurate, like 

 Reaumur, Newport, and Carpenter, give voice to palpable errors. Even the 

 last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica gives further life to these old erro- 

 neous views. Let us give brief attention to some of these descriptions. 



Hogg says the bee's tongue is cylindrical; Kirby, Spence, and Neighbour 

 state that it is jQat; Reaumur and Chambers that it is between the two. 

 Reaumur, Newport, Kirby, Spence, Carpenter, Shuckard, Bevan, and Hunter 

 all state that the tongue is solid, and that the honey is lapped up, or taken 

 through a tube, formed by the close approximation of the maxillre, labium, 

 and labial palpi. Newport speaks of a hairy sheath along the under side of 

 the basal two-thirds of the organ. Neighbour says there is a gutter through- 

 out the entire length of the tongue, while Swanimerdam, Lamarck, Bur- 

 meistcr, Wildman, and Munn claim that the organ is tubular. Newport and 

 Carpenter assert that the bee's tongue is muscular, which is denied by Cuvier, 

 Reaumur, and Chambers. 



That bees lap the nectar is affirmed by Reaumur, Newport, Kirby, and 

 Spence, Savigny, Carpenter, Bevan, and Hunter; while Swanimerdam, Wild- 

 man, Lamarck, Burmeister, Munn, and Neighbour claim that the bees take 

 liquids by suction. 



Amid these conflicting views let us see if we may find the truth. To do this 

 we must examine closely the structure of the organ, and also watch the insect 

 as it is taking its fill of honey or some other liquid. 



In the April number of the Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural 

 History, for 1878, Mr. V. T. Chambers, an able entomologist of Covington, 

 Kentucky, published a very admirable paper upon this subject. In the Amer- 

 ican Quarterly Microscopical Journal for 1879, p. 287, the subject was again 

 presented in a beautifully illustrated article by Mr. J. D. Hyatt, President of 

 the New York Microscopical Society. I learn that Wolff has published a fully 



