CHAPTER XVII 

 THE ANATOMY OF THE HONEY-BEE 



A DETAILED discussion of the anatomy of the 

 honey-bee does not fall within the scope of this book; 

 for such a discussion, special works on insect anatomy 

 must be consulted. But there are certain of the 

 more general features of the structure of the bee 

 which the bee-keeper should know; and a discussion 

 of these, merits a place even in an elementary book 

 on bee-keeping. 



In treating of insect anatomy it is customary to 

 divide the subject into two parts: first, external 

 anatomy, which treats of the structure of the body- 

 wall; and, second, internal anatomy, which treats 

 of the parts found inside the body-wall. 



I. EXTERNAL ANATOMY 



The body-wall. Insects differ fundamentally from 

 man and other backboned animals. With us, the 

 muscles and other soft parts are supported by an 

 internal skeleton ; with the insects the body-wall, that 

 part which corresponds to our skin, is hard and 

 serves as a skeleton. In some respects this is a better 

 arrangement than that which obtains w r ith us, for 

 the skeleton of an insect serves as an armour to 

 protect the body as well as a support for the soft 

 parts. 



181 



