A LOST OPPORTUNITY IN BEE-BREEDING 
MOUTH PARTS OF THE HONEY-BEE 
The outermost pair of organs are the maxille; the three in the center make up the labium. The 
long, central organ is the tongue, covered with long hairs, and terminating in a small, 
poon-shaped lobe. The tongue is not a solid appendage, nor yet is it truly tubular, 
having an opening on its lower side; its cross-section is much like that of the casing of 
an automobile tire. Liquids rise in the tongue by capillarity and sucking; but when 
the bee is drinking rapidly from a considerable quantity of nectar, he brings close together 
all the five organs here shown, and they form a loose tube up which he can suck the fluid. 
This photo-micrograph by Dr. K. Brunnich represents the proboscis of a worker, the 
drone and queen having mouth-parts of much smaller size. Reproduced from Glean- 
ings in Bee Culture. (Fig. 14.) 
