406 



AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL 



June 27, 1901. 



nurse and care for the younpf, from the egg to the emerg-ing 

 of the young bee, which is to perpetuate the existence of 

 the family in the same manner in which they are doing it. 

 Do not these acts imply the highest type of love and patri- 

 otism ? 



But this is sufficient to serve the purpose intended ; 

 hence, I will not pursue the subject further than to add, 

 that probably neither position is wholly tenable, but that 

 the whole matter is governed by a principle, or law in 

 Nature, or evolution, if you please, which simply, in a 

 sense, means the "survival of the fittest." 



One can scarcely refrain from admiration of the grace- 

 fulness of that stately old queen, as she makes her debut 

 into the residence of total strangers, and is so gracioush' 

 accepted, and immediately crowned sovereign of the realm. 

 Yet, it is a little surprising to think it necessary to 

 use a /if//f s7iioke just at the right time. It tends to divert 

 the attention ; to pervert the sense of smell ; to set the 

 whole colony to gorging themselves with honey, of course, 

 and, possibly, may have something to do in helping them 

 to form an opinion of the graciousness of her stateliness. 

 However that may be, try introducing this same old stately 

 queen into a queenless colony that has queen-cells forming, 

 however imperfect they may be, and note how little impres- 

 sion her stately figure and graceful movements make upon 

 the occupants of the hive. Try the same experiment with 

 a colony having the worst of all pests — laying-workers — 

 and note what will become of that magnificent old queen 

 in about a minute and a half. 



My I But enough. Allow me to say, in passing, to 

 beginners : Don't try any such experiments with j'our 

 $200 long-tongued red clover queens. If j-on do, you will 

 have your disappointment and misfortune to remember as 

 long as you live. Yes, this reminds me, that there seems 

 to have been raised, simultaneously, all over this country, 

 during the last year, an immense number of l-o-n-g- 

 tongued queens. When I think of it, it seems surprising — 

 but, then, I don't know as it is either. My bees have 

 alwaj's gathered nectar from red clover. Now let nobody 

 build hopes high that he can get a $200 queen from me for 

 SO cents. I have none for sale. 



My belief is, that such honey is of very little value 

 except possibly for brood-rearing. When a boy, as I got it 

 from the bumble-bees nest, while it was sweet, it was very 

 watery, and not specially of fine flavor. I believe in let- 

 ting the bumble-bee monopolize the red clover honey busi- 

 ness. Kankakee Co., 111. 



Circulation and Respiration in Insects. 



BY PKOF. A. J. COOK. 



RESPIRATION and circulation, or the securing of oxy- 

 gen and elimination of waste, and the conveying of 

 elements from one part of the body to another, are 

 exceedingly important functions in all the highest among 

 animals — so important that we denominate the cessation of 

 these functions as death. A chicken in Michigan lived for 

 weeks with its head cut off. That part of the brain— 

 the medulla oblongata — which is the centre of breathing, 

 remained intact, and so the chicken continued to breathe, 

 and the heart ceased not to beat, and so the chicken lived. 

 Of course, it could do no thinking, nor could it walk ; but 

 so long as breathing and the circulation of the blood con- 

 tinued, we say the chicken lived. 



In insects, and so in bees, respiration looses none of its 

 importance ; but because of its peculiar character, the cir- 

 culation of the blood becomes much less complicated. 

 Indeed, we may say that the respiratory system is inversely 

 proportional in its complication, to the circulatory appa- 

 ratus. 



In us, as with nearly all vertebrate animals, breathing 

 is specialized, and restricted to narrow limits. The lungs 

 are the organs, and in mammals the thorax is their seat of 

 action. These limitations make a ver3' complete circula- 

 tor}- apparatus very necessary, and so we have the great 

 force-pump — the heart — the conductors leading from it, the 

 strong arteries ; the minute capillaries which unite arteries 

 to veins, and which serve to bring the blood close alongside 

 the tissues ; and the veins, the great conduits, that return 

 the blood again to the heart. The oxygen, which is really 

 the most important food, if we may so designate it, is only 

 received in any considerable quantities by the lungs ; (the 

 skin respires in a small way, and so we get a modicum of 

 oxygen through skin respiration) the blood then must have 

 two circuits— the one to the lungs to get this vitalizing oxy- 



gen, the other to the body to give this same oxygen to the 

 tissues. Equally important is circulation, in bearing the 

 waste from the tissues, and equally important are the lungs 

 in separating this waste — the ashes of work, if we may so 

 speak — from the blood. In all these higher animals the air 

 comes to the lungs in a single tube — trachea — and enters 

 this either from mouth or nose through a single aperture — 

 the glottis. 



When we come to insects, we find a very different 

 arrangement. The bee and all insects must have the oxy- 

 gen, and if very active, as are bees and all other insects of 

 their order, they must have a large amount of this vitaliz- 

 ing element, the most important food-product. The insect's 

 breathing-organs are not localized : they are everywhere in 

 the body. Nor does the air enter at the opening, but rather 

 from several breathing-mouths, situated in pairs along the 

 sides of the body. These spiracles, as the breathing- 

 mouths are termed, are doubly guarded, first by hairs, and 

 also by membranous valves, so no dust is likely to gain 

 access to the insect lungs, or, in other words, to the intri- 

 cate breathing-tubes. These breathing-tubes, or trachea;, 

 as they are called, branch and rebranch, so everywhere in 

 the body we find them. Thus the life-giving oxygen goes 

 everywhere in the body, and there is no need of a complex 

 system to circulate it. 



These tracheal' are curious in their make-up. They are 

 made of spiral threads, lined with an epithelial or cellular 

 membrane, as are our own bronchial-tubes. Thus the ulti- 

 mate structure of the insect lungs is not essentially differ- 

 ent from that in higher animals. In both cases we have an 

 intricate and extensive ramification of tubules, lined with 

 a cellular membrane. The spiral thread which forms the 

 tubules in the insect respiratory system, is in appearance 

 and construction, as if we should wind a fine wire closely 

 about a lead-pencil, and then remove the pencil without dis- 

 turbing the wire. We note, then, that the insect's require- 

 ments are met in that air, or rather oxygen, is carried 

 everywhere to the tissues. 



The circulatory apparatus, then, need not be very com- 

 plex or energetic. It has not to carry the all-important 

 oxygen. Thus we understand why the insect blood is not 

 red. Blood is red because of a coloring element called 

 haemoglobin. This is large in amount, which shows its 

 importance. It is emphasized as we know its function, and 

 it is to carry oxygen. In insects there is no need to 

 carry oxygen, as the air with its oxygen goes everywhere. 



We understand, then, why insects have no red blood. 

 Were it there, it would be like Othello in the play — its occu- 

 pation would be gone. The only organ of circulation in 

 insects is in the heart. This is dorsal, and lies close along 

 the back. The blood in this always passes from behind for- 

 ward. Valvular openings along the side permit the blood to 

 enter. The heart contracts and sends this blood-stream 

 forward. It is emptied near the head end of the central 

 opening — the ctelome, as it is called. There are no special- 

 ized vessels to carry it back. It crowds along between the 

 visceral organs, and rushes into tlie tubular heart, to be 

 driven again towards the head. This heart action is to 

 keep the blood stirring, so that as active tissues take out 

 the nourishment, no portion may be depleted of nutritive 

 elements. All is constantly being mixed. And so all the 

 blood is kept as rich as any of it. Thus we see how an 

 intricate or elaborate air-system makes unnecessary a com- 

 plex circulatory apparatus. The machinery in all organic 

 nature is always simple, unless there is call for something- 

 intricate. Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Scientific Breedinj^ as Applied to Bees. 



BY ARTHUK C. M1I.I.ER. 



IN an editorial on page 355, reference was made to an 

 article of mine entitled " Scientific Breeding," and just 

 criticism was made of my expression, " Do not confuse 

 in-breeding with in-and-in-breeding." When writing that 

 article I had in mind in-and-in-breeding as that term is com- 

 tnonly understood, and I ought so to have expressed it. It 

 is commonly understood to mean the promiscuous breeding 

 together of animals closely related, and as the results of 

 this in ignorant or careless hands is generally disastrous, it 

 is supposed to prove that the breeding together of such 

 relations is disastrous per se. On the contrary, it is the 

 chief reliance of the skilled breeder for intensifying desir- 

 able tendencies. 



The article was not intended to be an essay on thorough 

 breeding, but was intended to do exactly what it has done. 



