STINGS. 



414 



STINGS. 



these muscles will work with a kind of pump- 

 like motion forcing the sting further into 

 the wound, as if they had a conscious exis- 

 tence and burned with desire to wreak ven- 

 geance on the party attacked. Nay, further, 

 after the sting has been pulled from the 

 flesh, and thrown away, if it should stick in 

 your clothing so your flesh will come in con- 

 tact with it, it will commence working again, 

 pull itself into the flesh, and empty the poi- 

 son into the wound, precisely as if the living 

 bee were itself working it. We have suffer- 

 ed many times from a sting unconnected 

 with any bee. Without precise figures, we 

 should say a sting would hold life enough to 

 give a very painful wound, for fully li\e 

 minutes, and it may be in some cases even 

 ten minutes.* This phenomenon is won- 

 derful, and we have often, while watching' 

 the sting sink into the rim of a felt hat, pon 

 dered on that wonderful thing, animal life. 

 Why should that isolated sting behave in 

 this manner, when the bee to which it be- 

 longed was perhaps far away, buzzing 

 through the air? Why should this bundle of 

 fibers and muscles behave as if it had a life 

 to throw awayV We do not know. This, 

 however, we do know, when you pull a sting 

 from the wound, you should throw it far 

 enough away so that it will not get back on 

 your face or hands, or into your hair, to sting 

 you again. 



In giving the following description of a 

 bee-sting, we are indebted to the draw- 

 ings and description given by J. K. Bledsoe, 

 of Natchez, Mississippi, in the Aynerican Bee 

 Journal for August, 1870. We are also in- 

 debted to Prof. Cook's excellent Manual. 



Under the microscope the sting is found 

 to be a beautifully fashioned and polished 

 instrument, whose delicate taper and finish 

 make a most surprising contrast with any 

 instrument man has been able to produce. 

 In shape it appears to be round ; but it is, 

 in reality, egg - shaped, and is of a dark- 

 red color, but transparent enough to show 

 the hollow running through the center of 

 each of its parts. These probably secure 

 lightness as well as strength. 



We give you three views, like letters rep- 

 resenting like parts in all. Bear in mind 

 that the sting proper is composed of three 

 parts— the outer shell, or husk, D, and two 

 barbed spears that slide partly inside of it. 

 In Fig. 2 we show you the spears. The barbs 

 are much like those on a common fish-hook; 



♦Muscular contraction of the sting has taken 

 place unrler the field of the microscope 20 minutes 

 after being detached from the bee. 



and when the point of one spear. A, pene- 

 trates far enough to get one barb under the 

 skin, the bee has nuide a hold, and has no dif- 

 ficulty in sinking the sting its whole length 

 into the wound; for the pumping motion at 

 once commences, and the other spear, B, 

 slides down a little beyond A, then A beyond 

 B, and so on. The manner in which these 



BEE-STING MAGNIFIED. 



spears are worked is, as nearly as we can 

 make out, with a pair of something like 

 pump-handles, operated by small but power- 

 ful muscles. We have shown you the ar- 

 rangement of these handles at J and K, Fig. 

 1, as nearly as we could conjecture what it 

 must be, from watching its workings under 

 the microscope. These muscles will work, 

 at intervals, for some time after the sting 

 has been torn from the bee, as we have ex- 

 plained. They work with sufficient power to 

 send the sting through a felt hat or into a 

 tough buckskin glove. We have often watch- 

 ed the bee while attempting to get its sting 

 started into the hard cuticle on the inside of 

 hand. The spears often run along the sur- 

 face diagonally, so that you can see how they 

 work down by successive pumps. The hol- 

 low in these spears is indicated at G and F, 

 in Figs. 2 and 3; O, O, ducts leading from 

 G and F. 



We are not certain as to the real rffire 

 of these ducts, O, O, but have sometimes 



