THE ANATOMY OF THE HONEY BEE. 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



The anatomy of the honey bee has been for years a subject of much 

 interest to those engaged in bee keeping both for pleasure and for 

 profit. This interest is due not only to a laudable curiosity to know 

 more of the bee, but to the necessity of such information in order 

 to understand fully what takes place in the colony. All practical 

 manipulations of bees must depend on an understanding of the be- 

 havior and physiology of bees under normal and abnormal circum- 

 stances, and those bee keepers who have advanced bee keeping moSt 

 by devising better manipulations are those, in general, who know 

 most of bee activity. In turn, a knowledge of bee activity must rest 

 largely on a knowledge of the structure of the adult bee. 



Studies on the anatomy of the bee have not been lacking, for 

 many good workers have taken up this subject for investigation. 

 The popular demand for such information, however, has induced 

 untrained men to write on the subject, and most accounts of bee 

 anatomy contain numerous errors. This is probably to a greater 

 extent true of the anatomy of the bee than of that of any other 

 insect. Frequently the illustrations used by men not trained in 

 anatomical work are more artistic than those usually found in papers 

 on insect anatomy, and they consequently bear the superficial marks 

 of careful work, but too often it is found that the details are in- 

 accurate. It has therefore seemed the right time for a new presenta- 

 tion of this subject based on careful work. 



The drawings given in the present paper are original, with the 

 exception of figures 12, 54, and 55, and have been prepared with 

 a thorough realization of the need of more accurate illustrations of 

 the organs of the bee, especially of the internal organs. Mistakes 

 will possibly be found, but the reader may be assured that all the 

 parts drawn were seen. Most of the dissections, moreover, were 

 verified by Dr. E. F. Phillips and Dr. J. A. Nelson, of this Bureau, 

 before the drawings were made from them. An explanation of the 

 abbreviations and lettering is given on pages 139-147. 



It is hoped that the work will furnish the interested bee keeper 

 with better information on the anatomy of the bee than has hereto- 

 fore been offered to him, that it may provide a foundation for more 

 detailed work in anatomy and histologj^, and, finally, that it will be 



