4 American Quarterly Microscopical Journal. 



others, but above all the admirable " Researches of M. Lacaze 

 Duthiers,"* we shall greatly extend our knowledge, not only of 

 the sting of the Honey Bee, but of the correlated terminal 

 pieces, such as ovipositors, saws, etc., with which the in- 

 sects in the whole order Hymenoptera, are furnished. Having, 

 at great expenditure of time, consulted all these and many 

 other works, we may comeback to our slide containing the dis- 

 sected sting, and still find an inexplicable mystery in some of 

 its parts. This has been my experience, and with a view of 

 determining more accurately the entire mechanism of this intri- 

 cate and complicated structure, I have carefully observed its 

 action, so far as possible in the living insect, and by numerous 

 dissections, in which I have traced every point of connection of 

 the various pieces, and tested every possible movement of the 

 parts upon each other, and made transverse sections through 

 every point in its entire length, and I now venture to place be- 

 fore you the result of my investigations. 



I have chosen the sting of the Honey Bee as the subject of 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 1 AND II. 



The figures in the two plates are numbered consecutively. 

 The description of one side applies to both. 



Fig. I. View of entire mechanism of the sting, except poison gland ; muscles 

 being removed. 



A, The sheath. 



E, Palpi, or feelers. 



D, Principal levers for projecting the sheath. 



C, Articulated to D, at o, and slightly to B at i, affords muscular attachments 

 to the compound lever composed of C and B. 



B, Second part of this compound lever, articulated to D at s, and to the ex- 

 tremity of the lancet at c. 



P, Neck of the poison gland : c, a, k, lancet. 



Fig. 2. Lateral view of the same parts, with lancets removed to show the form 

 of sheath ; p, poison gland ; d, duct leading from the secretory gland (not shown 

 in the figure). The parts shown are lettered the same as in Fig. i. 



Fig. 3. Sheath with lancets lying along the grooves ; levers removed to allow 

 view of stop-valve attached to lancets, seen through the partially transparent 

 cylindrical part at p ; a, anterior curved arm of sheath ; f, ' ^fourchettc, " below neck 

 of poison gland. 



Fig. 4. A single lancet dissected, to show its attachments. From a to c, a 

 thin flange along the arched part ; P, stop-valve appendage ; B, triangular piece 

 of compound lever-moving lancet, with which it is articulated at c. 



* Recherches Sur L'Armure Genitale des Insects. Par. M. Lacaze Duthiers. Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles. 1848 to 1852. 



