HYMENOPTERA. 109 



"Even in the drop of honey the bee bends the end of its 

 tongue about, and lengthens and sliortens it successively, and, 

 indeed, withdraws it from moment to moment." The liquid 

 passes along the upper surface of the pilose tongue, which is 

 withdrawn between its sheaths, the palpi and maxilljB, and thus 

 "conveys and deposits the liquid with which it is charged 

 within a sort of channel, formed by the upper surface of the 

 tongue and the sheaths which fold over it, by which the liquid 

 is conveyed to the mouth." (.Shuckard.) 



The thorax forms a rounded compact oval mass, with the 

 prothorax and metathorax very small, the mesothorax being 

 large, and also the i)ropodeum, to which the pedicel of the ab- 

 domen is attached. The pleurites are large and bulging, 

 while the sternum is minute. Tlie coxse and trochantines are 

 large, and quite free from the thorax ; and the trochanters 

 are small, while the rather slender legs are subject to great 

 ■ modifications, as they are devoted to so many different uses 

 by these insects ; thus, in the Sand-wasps they are strongly 

 )n-istled for the purpose of digging, and in the Bees, the 

 basal joint of the tarsi is much enlarged for carrying pollen. 



"The manner in which the bee conveys either the pollen, or 

 other material it purposes carrying home, to the posterior 

 legs, or venter, which is to bear it, is very curious. Tlie 

 rapidity of the motion of its legs is then veiy great ; so great, 

 indeed, as to make it very difficult to follow them ; but it 

 seems first to collect its material gradually with its mandibles, 

 from which the anterior tarsi gather it, and that on each side 

 passes successively the grains of which it consists to the inter- 

 mediate legs, by multiplicated scrapings and twistings of the 

 limbs ; tliis, then, passes it on by similar manoeuvres, and de- 

 posits it, according to the nature of the bee, upon the pos- 

 terior tibiae and tarsi, or upon the under side of the abdomen. 

 The evidence of this process is speedily manifested by the pos- 

 terior legs gradually exhibiting an increasing pellet of pollen. 

 Thus, for this purpose, all the legs of the bees are more or less 

 covered with hair. It is the mandibles which are chiefly used 

 in their boring or excavating operations, applying their hands, 

 or anterior tarsi, only to clear their way ; but by the construc- 

 tive, or artisan bees, they are used both in their building and 



