250 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



which the bee secures the nectar. We can also well understand why they gather 

 so much faster from some flowers than from others. In the one case they secure 

 the liciuid sweet through both the channels above described ; in the other, when 

 the honey is scarce or deep down in small tubular flowers, tliey can only use 

 this microscopic tube. 



We also note the admirable construction of the tongue, which permits it to 

 probe these tiny flowers, and also see the advantage of even a little additional 

 length in tiiis important and wonderful organ. 



1 also believe that bees lap up the honey. If we spread a thin layer of honey 

 on a glass, and ])ermit the bees to visit it, we shall see the bees wipe it up witli 

 their ligula?. Fine drops disappear even though the funnel does not touch 

 them. From this observation, as well as the structure of the organ — if I am 

 right in believing that the slit in the rod opens on the surface — we can but 

 conclude that the slit in the rod, no less than the funnel, may be the door 

 whereby liquids pass to the tube. If Mr. Hyatt is right in thinking that the 

 dorsal band of the rod is muscular, we can readily see from its position and the 

 form of the rod, how the slit might be opened. If the liquid is very thick the 

 bees are seen frequently to retract the ligula and then extend it, as if to clear 

 the organ by scraping it between the maxillse and palpi. 



While sipping honey the bee performs a kind of respiratory movement with 

 the abdomen. This sliows that the force of suction comes partly, if not 

 wholly from the stomach, whicli organ is situated in the abdominal cavity. 

 The tongue is also retracted and extended rythmically while the bee is sipping. 

 The tip passes alternately back and forth from its greatest distance from the 

 mentum to tlie end of the palpi. This movement may be sometliing analogous 

 to swallowing. 



I am not certain as to the function of the membranous sac. I have found, 

 that if I killed a bee by compressing its thorax, very soon after it commenced 

 to sip the colored liquid, that the latter was always in the stomach but not in 

 the sac. If I waited longer I found the sac also partially filled. This leads 

 me to conclude that it acts as a storehouse, enabling the bee to carry a load 

 beyond the capacity of its stomach. It also appears glandular, when distend- 

 ed, so possibly it secretes an animal juice or ferment which aids in changing 

 cane sugar into glucose or grape sugar; for we find upon analysis that pure 

 cane sugar after passing through the stomach of the bee has partially under- 

 gone this transforniatiou. 



After the bees have sipped the colored liquid, I find invariably that the tip 

 of the tongue — the small portion where the slit in the sheath seems obscure, 

 and where the rod seems more firmly attached to the sheath, is highly colored, 

 as though full of liquid. Possibly the sac does not extend into this portion, 

 and the tube may be larger in this part. By a little pressure the liquid is 

 made to pass out of this portion of the tube, either through the funnel or slit, 

 perhaps both. 



I have measured hundreds of tongues, under the microscope, with the cam- 

 era lucida, and have been much interested to observe the wondrous uniformity 

 in length where the bees were from the same colony or from the same apiary, 

 especially if close breeding had been practiced. Tongue after tongue would 

 show a variation of less than .035 of an inch. I have found the length of the 

 American black bee's tongue to average about .24 of an inch in length, from 

 the base of the mentum to the tip of the ligula. American-bred Italian bees I 

 have found, when measured by the same scale, to have tongues .O'-i of an inch 

 longer. Some bees, said to be Cyprians, but closely resembling our black bees, 



