10 



tongue, IS, strictly speaking, formed from a prolongation of 

 the lower jaw, this is used for suction ; but the proboscis is 

 stated by all writers to be solid, and that the honey ia 

 licked, or swept up, by this instrument ; all my experi- 

 ments prove to my mind, as far as I dare trust my lenses 

 and eyes, that it forms the canal for the fluid, nectar or 

 honey, to be passed through successive valves, by pumping 

 or suction into the pharynx or canal, situated at its root, 

 and through that it is conveyed to the honey bag. I trust 

 the more accurate workers with the microscopes will set 

 this question at rest by examining the proboscis and dissect 

 it transversely and more carefully. This wonderful appa- 

 ratus, however, is much shorter in the queen bee, who 

 never helps herself to the food through it, but receives it 

 from the worker bees, even at the moment of starvation. 

 The whole of this complex machinery rests on a pedicle 

 which admits of its being drawn in or elongated to 

 enter the calix of the flower. I beg you to examine 

 the statement in the " Book of the Entomology of Bees," 

 page 35, Naturalist's Library. There are also the three 

 Btsmma on the head ; these are identical in the queen and 

 worker bee, and are situated and set in a triangle above 

 and between the " An tense." Having drawn your attention 

 to the parts that differ in the head of the bee, it remains 

 for me to mention the thorax or centre of the body. The 

 head is attached by a pedicle, and has the passages leading 

 to the sucking stomach, and oesophagus, &c., and the thorax 

 contains the centre motive powers, the muscles of the legs 

 and wings. The great differences in these having been al- 

 ready alluded to, I shall merely mention the external ap- 

 pearance of the spiracles or stigmata through which the 

 wings force the air and enable the bees to ventilate, and 

 produce that vibrating hum so frequently heard in a hive, 

 and that particular rushing of sound, when suddenly 

 alarmed by concussion, &c., and we pass on to the 

 third part of the insect formation, viz., the abdomen. 

 In the Queen, it contains the developed ovarum, consisting 



