BEKS. 



jind of wliicli, of course, we are incapable of judging. When 

 an insect is deprived of its antennae, it always appears quite 

 bewildered, and can no longer procure food, guide itself, o? 

 even direct its mouth to the food placed before it. Ants, 

 who also belong to the same order as the bees, constantly 

 touch each other with their antennae as they pass and repass, 

 and seem to make them their means of communicating ideas 

 — how, is unknown. These organs consist of twelve joints 

 in the female, and of thirteen in the male. 



Of the parts of the mouth generally called the proboscis, 

 some description has already been given. This, together 

 with the principal mandibles or jaws is concealed by the 

 upper lip or labrum when the head is examined from 

 above. The palpi appear just outside the labrum. The 

 palpi, which look like very small antennae, are of consider- 

 able importance. Entomologists are more inclined to give 

 them the name of feelers, than to bestow that appellation 

 upon the antennae, as the insect is always seen to apply 

 them to its food before eating. When deprived of them, 

 the insect does not appear to be thrown into that state of 

 bewilderment, which is caused by the loss of its antennae. 

 In some insects, such as the great water-beetle {Hydrous 

 piceus), the palpi are longer and larger than the antennae. 



The thorax is joined to the head by the slight throat. 

 This important portion of the bee's body is principally in- 

 tended to bear the organs of locomotion. The thorax is 

 divided into three parts, which in beetles where the skeleton 

 is harder than in the bees, can be separated from each other. 

 Of these the first segment, called the prothorax, bears the 

 first pair of legs, the second segment, called the mesothorax, 

 bears the first pair of wings (which are analogous to the 

 wing-covers of beetles) and the second pair of legs, while 

 the third segment, called the metathorax, bears the second 

 pair of wings, and supports the third pair of legs. The 

 thorax, also, seems to protect the great mass of nervous 

 cords which meet just below the first pair of legs. The leg- 

 is composed of several joints, and terminated by two hooks, 

 by means of which it is enabled to hang to any substance, 

 as the sloth hangs on a tree, without requiring to use mus- 

 cular exertion. There is, also, at the sole of the foot, an 

 apparatus similar to that of the fly, by which it can attacii 



