1881.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 5T 



That the same results follow in all the worker castes may be 

 seen in Fig. 6*7, the abfloraen of a minim or dwarf worker. 



Turning to tlie honej'-bearers, we find precisely the same con- 

 dition of the abdomen, except that the distention of the crop has 

 greatly increased, pushing its walls in all directions quite up 

 against the inner walls of the abdomen, forcing the latter into 

 rotundity, and compressing the other organs into the smaller 

 space. 



Fig. 69 is the abdomen of a honej^-bearer, which appeared to be 

 a little short of the full rotundity. The crop filled the entire 

 cavity, but the gizzard, stomach and intestine, instead of being- 

 crowded together upon each other, were in their normal relations, 

 and appeared to be in an entirely healthy state. The aspect of 

 man}^ of the bearers raised the query, whether the anus might not 

 be sealed by the organs forced against it, thus stopping all excre- 

 tion, and making the animal simply a vital honey-pot. The above 

 individual, at least, had every appearance of normal condition and 

 action of all the organs. 



In the next example (fig. 70), the gizzard, stomach, malpighi- 

 an vessels and intestine are forced down quite within the compass 

 of the fourth pairs of segmental plates, and directly over the cloacal 

 vent. For the most part these organs are situated ventral, but 

 here they are partly dorsal of this cleft. The most usual position 

 of the stomach in the honey-bearers is between and quite close to 

 the fifth and fourth ventral plates. The gizzard is a little anterior 

 of this, the sepals, which mark the posterior pole, or entrance of 

 the crop within the gizzard, being directed downward, upward, 

 downward and backward, upward and backward, or forward, at 

 hap-hazard. 



Another illustration is given (fig. 68), in which the crop of a 

 honey-bearer is seen in the act of contraction, after having been 

 punctured through a slit (s) in the abdomen. When one holds a 

 rotund up to the light, and looks into the semi-transparent abdo- 

 men, it is not possible to distinguish the crop from the abdominal 

 membrane. But in the example here figured, as the honey flowed 

 out from the pierced crop, the slowly contracting and thickenino- 

 folds of the partly emptied organ were thus revealed. Nothino- 

 could demonstrate more clearly than this experiment and figure 

 that it is the crojj alone which fills the distended abdomen. 



I venture to add a final illustratioji to tliis series. I was en- 



