PLANT-EATING INSECTS AND MYRIAPODS 205 



439) leads to the production of the latter. The minute female 

 insect is provided with a long and slender ovipositor, which is for 

 the most part drawn back into the body when not in use, and which 

 is made up of parts corresponding in origin, though not in shape, 

 to those constituting the similar organs of saw-flies. The bedeguar 

 results from the abnormal growth of a leaf-bud, in which three 

 successive leaves have been perforated in spring by a rose gall-fly. 

 It would appear that the young, actively-dividing vegetable tissue 

 is stimulated to excessive and peculiar growth by the development 

 of the eggs, though the exact nature of the process still requires 

 to be worked out. 



Among BEES the most familiar form is, of course, the highly- 

 specialized Honey- Bee (Apis mellifica), which, as nearly everyone 

 knows, lives in communities consisting of a queen, workers (un- 

 developed females), and males or drones. The food of the 

 community is entirely derived from flowers, and consists of the 

 fertilizing yellow dust called pollen, and of the sweet nectar 

 secreted deep within the recesses of flowers, often being con- 

 tained in specialized tubes ("spurs"), of which typical forms are 

 to be seen in pansy, columbine, and monkshood. The first joints 

 of the hind-feet in the worker are broadened out and provided on 

 their inner surfaces with regular transverse rows of hairs, suggest- 

 ing in appearance the teeth of a comb. This is for the purpose 

 of carrying pollen to the hive. Specialization of a much more 

 remarkable character, however, is found in the parts of the mouth, 

 fitting them to obtain nectar without destroying their usefulness as 

 biting organs. It has elsewhere been explained (p. 102) that an 

 insect possesses an upper lip (labrum) and three pairs of limbs, 

 modified to serve as jaws, some insects of primitive nature, such 

 as the Cockroach (see vol. i, p. 345), presenting a very unspecial- 

 ized form of this arrangement. In the worker-bee we find that 

 there is nothing remarkable about the labrum and first pair of 

 jaws (mandibles), the latter being efficient biting structures. The 

 other two pairs of jaws (first and second maxillae), however, are 

 modified into a long proboscis (see vol. i, p. 370), which, when 

 not in use, is folded up on the under side of the body. This con- 

 sists of an outer sheath formed by the first maxillae, and a central 

 nectar-conducting piece formed by fusion of the second maxillae 

 and a slender hairy piece (ligula) which extends far beyond them. 

 This central piece is grooved on its under surface, and ends in a 



