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leathery consistence, and closed over the organs below it, being 

 covered when at rest by the mandibles. The gullet was placed close 

 under the labrum, and was closed by the valve above, beneath which 

 was a small triangular appendage, which received ihe honey or food. 

 The labrum had two joints, one of which carried the maxillc-e, cr lower 

 jaws, which in a state of rest folded together and formed a sheath for 

 the lingual apparatus. The tongue was not, as was formerly thought, 

 tubular, but flat, and when at repose was broader than thick. It could 

 be lengthened and shortened v/ith great rapidity, thus pushing the 

 syrup up to the gullet. Reaumur proved that the food always passes 

 over the surface of the tongue, and not through the aperture which was 

 thought to exist in it. The thorax was divided into three parts, to the 

 front of which the front legs were attached. On the tibia of the fore- 

 legs in ail bees was a velum, so named from its resemblance to a little 

 sail, opposite which, at the base of the palmas, was a deep incision 

 called the strigilis or currycomb, from the pecten or comb of short stiff 

 hair which fringed it. This apparatus was for the purpose of cleaning 

 the antennK, which wei'e drawn through the hollow incision while 

 being pressed by the velum against the currycomb. In the boring bees 

 the mandibles do the cutting and excavating work, while the forelegs or 

 hands were used to clear away the rubbish thus formed ; but by the artizan 

 bee the forelegs were used like trowels to work up the soft clay into cells. 

 The bee had the power of locking the wings together in flight by 

 means of a row of hooks on the inferior wing which caught in a ridge 

 or ledge in the upper wing, and thus gave the insect a much greater 

 power of beating the air. On the hinder portion of the thorax were 

 placed the hind legs, the shank of which in the social bee was dilated, 

 for the purpose of carrying pollen. The abdomen was often elegantly 

 coloured, and consisted of six imbricated segments in the female and 

 seven in the male. In the artizan bee pollen was conveyed on the 

 abdomen instead of the hind legs, perhaps because of the narrow 

 entrances to their nests. 



Passing on to the consideration of the honey bee, in particular, 

 they found the male or drone was distinguished by its more cylindrical 

 shape, its larger size, and by being more densely hairy all over. 

 The large compound eyes met at the top of the head and covered 

 all the side of the face. The abdomen consisted of seven segments, 

 being thus distinguished from the queen, which had six seg- 

 ments. The structure of the drone, as of all male bees, incapacitated 



