378 



PHYLUM ARTHROPODA 



are also present in the head region. Of the other appendages of the 

 head, the mandibles are in the workers very powerful, and used for 

 many purposes connected with comb-building. In the first maxillae 

 the maxillary palps are aborted, and the appendage consists of an un- 

 divided lamina at each side, borne on a basal piece consisting as usual 

 of stipes and cardo. The second pair of maxillee form as usual the 

 labium or so-called lower lip. and are much modified. The united basal 



joints form the mentum and 

 sub-mentum. From the mentum 

 at either side springs the long 

 labial palp, which represents 

 the outer fork of the typical 

 appendage. The endopodite at 

 each side is divided into two 

 parts, but the inner two (laciniae) 

 are united, much elongated, and 

 form the tongue or ligula of the 

 bee. The outer halves form 

 the paraglossae, which are closely 

 apposed to the base of the 

 ligula. It is the great elonga- 

 tion of the ligula and labial 

 palps which especially fits the 

 bee for nectar-gathering. The 

 three structures can be closely 

 apposed to one another, and 

 then form an air-tight tube, up 

 which, by the action of the 

 stomach, nectar is sucked. In 

 many of our British bees the 

 ligula is much shorter, and 

 more or less trowel-like in 

 shape, and is then used largely, 

 as in wasps, in the operation of 

 plastering the nest. In such 

 cases the bee can only suck 

 those flowers in which the 

 nectar is superficial. The hive- 

 bees and humble-bees, on the 

 other hand, are specially modi- 

 fied to enable them to extract 

 nectar from tubular flowers. 

 When not in use, the elongated 

 mouth-parts are folded back upon themselves, not coiled as in 

 butterflies and moths, where there is even greater elongation. 



In the queen and in the drone the mouth -parts are shorter, and are 

 not used in honey-gathering. pw ■ 



The thoracic appendages consist of cours? of three pairs of legs, which 

 have the usual parts. On the first leg, at the junction of the tibia and 

 the first tarsal joint, there is a complicated mechanism which is em- 

 ployed in cleaning the antennae ; this is present in all three forms, and 



Fig. 2x4. — Head and mouth parts 

 of bee. — After Cheshire. 



a.. Antenna ; m., mandible ; g., labruni or 

 ' epipharj'nx ; mx.p., rudiment of maxil- 

 lary palp ; mx., lamina of maxilla ; I. p., 

 labial palp ; /., ligula ; b., bouton at end. 

 The paraglossffi lie concealed between the 

 basal portions of the labial palps and 

 the ligula. 



