On the Tongue (Lingua) of Some Hymenoptera. 161 



NOTE TO THE PAPER '' ON THE TONGUE {LINGUA) OF 

 S03IE HYMENOPTERA'' {ante p. 40). 



By V. T. Chambers. 



I wish to correct one or two errors into which I have fallen in the 

 paper above referred to. Tliat paper contains numerous typographical 

 errors, arising probably from want of skill or carelessness in cor- 

 recting the proof-sheets, such for instance, as: Reaumer for Reaumur \ 

 Burmiester for Burmeister ; Hymenopterad for Hymenoptera ; De- 

 Gum for DeGeer ; Emunidoi for Eumenidoi ; Amoiihile for Amophila ; 

 and Zylocopa for Xylocopa ; but these, though disfiguring the paper, 

 are so palpable as scarce!}' to need correction. 



A more important error is on page 4.S, where the pharynx is men- 

 tioned as being under the hypopharynx and epipharynx ; instead of 

 under read above^ or perhaps more correctly, behind. 



A still more important error is the statement on pages 49 and f>0, 

 that the diameter of the tube in the tongue of the hive bee, at its nar- 

 rowest point, is l-500th of a line., and in some of the Andrenidoi is 

 1-lOOOth of a line. For line in these passages read inch. I am at a 

 loss to account for this misstatement. I have heard it objected that 

 even the l-500th of an inch is too small an aperture for effective use, 

 but this is a mistake. In the greater number of Lej^idojitera, Diptera., 

 Hemiptera., Homoptera., the diameter of the suctorial organ will not be 

 found to be greater than l-500th of an inch. In a large Aphis, I found 

 it to be about 1-lOOOth of an inch. The presence of pollen in the tube 

 of a bee's tongue (a very common occurrence when the bee is killed im- 

 mediateW after being taken on a flower) demonstrates the fact that the 

 capacity of the tube is large enough. 



But further and more careful study have convinced me that it is only 

 in the Apidoi that the tongue is a sucking tube, and that it is not so 

 in the Andrenidce. In these, while it is true that the rod is tubular 

 the tube gradually narrows toward the apex, and entirely disappears 

 just before reaching it, so that the apex is a very fine, imperforate 

 point in the Acuti Ungues. Indeed, considering this fact, and the short- 

 ness of the hairy part (the true lingua or tongue), and the distance 

 which the nectar would have to ascend along the smooth, outer sur- 

 face, first of the mentum, and basal joints, when the tongue is fully 

 extended before it reaches the pharj'nx; it is difficult to comprehend 

 how these bees can take liquid food either b}' suction or by lapping. 

 The onl}' way that I can conceive it possible is that the nectar is first 

 lapped up b}' the short, hairy tongue, and that the mentum and basal 

 joints are then folded back so as to bring the tongue within reach of the 



