406 Animal Biology 



antennae of other workers the "scent information" necessary to direct 

 the latter to newly discovered food supplies. The so-called "tongue" 

 bears numerous, bristlelike taste setae. Bees can be trained to estimate 

 time intervals, because some have been trained to come to a source of 

 food at regular intervals. The pair of large compound eyes, on the top 

 and side of the head, are constructed and function similar to those of the 

 grasshopper previously described. The color sense of bees is better ad- 

 justed to the shorter wave lengths of the light spectrum; that is, toward 

 the blue end of the spectrum. Three small simple eyes (ocelli) are pres- 

 ent on the dorsal side of the head. 



The stijig is a modified ovipositor which is used for protection (Fig. 

 200). Males do not have a sting. It is composed of two straight, 

 grooved lancets (darts) with barbs at the tips and with muscles for their 

 operation. A large, storage poison sac is connected with the base of the 

 sting. Two acid glands and an alkaline gland mix their secretions to 

 form the poisonous material which is injected when the bee stings. After 

 stinging, the worker leaves the sting, poison sac, glands, etc., and the bee 

 dies. 



Reproduction.— The worker honeybee contains only vestigial (ves- 

 tij' i al) (L. vestigium,, trace) reproductive organs since It Is an unde- 

 V'cloped female. The reproductive organs of the m.ale (drone) include 

 one pair of bean-shaped testes which produce sperm, that are carried 

 away by one pair of slender vasa deferentia. The latter expand to form 

 the sem,inal vesicles for sperm storage. The two seminal vesicles combine 

 to form one ejaculatory duct which leads to the copulatory mechanism,. 

 One pair of large accessory glands secrete and empty nourishment Into 

 the ejaculatory duct. 



In the female (queen), one pair of large ovaries produces eggs which 

 are carried by one pair of oviducts. The latter unite to form one tubu- 

 lar vagina leading to the exterior. A spermatheca attached to the vagina 

 stores sperm received from the male during copulation. The queen is 

 fertilized once In a lifetime, during a nuptial flight during swarming, and 

 the sperms remain alive for years In the spermatheca. As an egg passes 

 down the ovary toward the oviduct, its receives a shell with a small open- 

 ing, the micropyle, through which a sperm may enter. A queen may lay 

 an unfertilized egg to develop a drone or fertilized eggs to develop fe- 

 males, either queens or workers. A queen may lay 1,500 eggs per day 

 for weeks at a time, and she may live several years. The eggs are small, 

 oblong, and bluish-white. Fertilized eggs are placed in worker or queen 

 cells of the honeycomb; unfertilized eggs, in the drone cells. A worm- 



