366 TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



of the labium, i.e., the lingua or tongue, which is elongated, pliant, and 

 beset with setose hairs arranged in whorls, can be moved backwards and 

 forwards. When desiring to suck, the bee protrudes the tongue far out 

 of the tube and dips it into the sweet juice, so that the whorls of hairs 

 soon are completely soaked with it. On now retracting the tongue the 

 juice gets into the surrounding tube, and is thence sucked up into the 

 mouth. (Thus the juice is first lapped up and then sucked in. Why is 

 it of importance that the tongue should be of great length and very 

 flexible ?) With the help of this suction apparatus the bee also drinks 

 water. 



The pincer-shaped mandibles are, in accordance with their shape, 

 used after the manner of pincers. With their help the bee detaches 

 and consumes the pollen dust, bites off the propolis, kneads the wax, 

 and carries both to the place where they are required, and also carries 

 out of the hive refuse, the dead bodies of its sister bees, etc. Before 

 the mandibles enter into action, the suction apparatus is folded back 

 below under the head. 



Thus the mouth parts are adapted to quite different functions, being 

 used at once for lapping, sucking and biting. The drones and the queen 

 do not share in these actions, and their mouth parts are accordingly 

 much less developed than those of the worker females. 



(c) We know, however, that the bee has also to bring back from 

 its excursion food for its hungry larvae and sister bees, as well as to 

 contribute to the common store. It requires, therefore, structural pro- 

 visions for collecting and transporting these materials. The flower- juices 

 are conveyed in the oesophagus, which towards its termination widens 

 out into a sac (honey-stomach), and which can be shut off from the true 

 or digestive stomach by muscles. By the addition of special secretions 

 the juice sucked up acquires a peculiar taste and smell, or, in other 

 words, is converted into honey. Arrived in the hive, the bee gives up this 

 honey by regurgitating it. 



(d) In entering the flower the bee, in consequence of its motions, 

 involuntarily rubs off some of the pollen dust, which adheres to its hairy 

 body, so that the insect often looks as if it had been powdered. A small 

 magnifying power shows that most of the hairs are branched, and 

 therefore specially adapted for retaining the pollen dust. 



(e) The receptacle in which the pollen dust is carried home consists 

 of a depression on the outer side of the tibiae of the hind-legs. It is 

 appropriately termed the basket, and is enclosed by a fence of long hairs 

 partly curved inwards, which prevents the little balls of pollen from 

 dropping out. Now, how does the bee fill these baskets? With the 

 help of its hairy and very movable legs, it brushes the pollen dust from 



