324 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



The correction of one error into which Virgil has 

 fallen in this passage, will lead us to describe the sin- 

 gularly ingenious structure of the bee's sting. This 

 weapon never requires to be whetted, and, if it did, 

 it could not be reached for that purpose by the pro- 

 boscis or tongue. The formidable instrument con- 

 sists, like the ovipositor of the saw-flies,* of an exten- 

 sile sheath, enclosing two needle-shaped darts much 

 finer than a human hair. The latter can seldom be 

 distinguished by the naked eye, what is usually taken 

 for the sting being only the sheath. Svvammerdam, 

 however, could never ascertain whether the bee can 

 wound or pierce the skin with the sheath only;t 

 being very sharp, it may possibly be used to make 

 the first puncture before the darts are thrust out. 

 The fineness of the point of the sheath may be strik- 

 ingly inferred from the observations of Hook: ' An 

 exceedingly small needle,' he tells us, ' being ex- 

 amined by a microscope, the point thereof appeared 

 above a quarter of an inch in breadth; not round or 

 flat, but irregular and unequal; and the surface, 

 though extremely smooth and bright to the naked 

 eye, seemed full of ruggedness, holes, and scratches. 

 In short, it resembled an iron bar out of a smith's 

 forge.' The sheath of a bee's sting, on the other 

 hand, viewed through the same instrument, showed 

 every where a polish most amazingly beautitiil, with- 

 out the least flaw, blemish, or inequality, and ended 

 in a point too fine to be visible. J The two dart^^ 

 are distinctly separate, even to the base; and though 

 so very close to one another, they can be made t.o 

 act independently, for Swammerdam has often se en 

 one thrust out farther than the other. Towards tb.eir 

 extremity these darts are armed with ten miriute 

 teeth, standing obliquely like those of a saw, and 



* See Insect Architecture, p. 153. 

 t Biblia Nat. i, 200. t Hook's Micrographia. 



