XH15 MMERICMl^ BElf JQURNXEr. 



375 



BEE-GLANDS. 



Some Faol§ about the Glaii(l§ in 

 Honey-Becs. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



A "gland " is an organ which takes 

 elements from the blood of animals, or 

 juices of plants, and forms from these 

 a liquid called a secretion. Thus nec- 

 tar in flowers is a secretion formed bj- 

 the glandular cells of the blossom. 

 Our own livers are glands which 

 secrete the bile. 



The essential structure of a gland is 

 a membrane with epithelial cells on 

 one side, and blood on the other. Such 



The Glands in Dees, Q-reatly Magnified— 

 Modified from Cheshire. 



a simple structure is called a "mem- 

 branous'" gland. Such glands line all 

 the closed cavities of the bod}', as the 

 joints, the thorax, abdomen, etc. Often 

 this membrane dips, and We have bags, 

 pocket-like, or follicles. Such glands 

 are called "follicular." 



We see examples of follicular glands 

 in the lining membrane of the mouth. 

 Often these pockets are prolonged into 

 tubes, and we have "tubular" glands, 

 as seen in the lining coat of the stom- 

 ach. Most frequenti}- the tubes branch 

 and re-branch, like a twig, and re- 

 semble a bunch of grapes (see Fig.), 

 and are then known as "racemose" 

 glands. All of our salivary or spittle 

 glands are of this kind. 



Our bees are in some respects the 

 most remarkable of animals. Their 

 larder, unlike that of most animals, is 

 not filled with a single kind of food. 

 They subsist on pollen — a verj' hearty 

 nitrogenous food (a regular pork-and- 

 beans diet), and on nectar, a highly- 

 flavored dish of carbo-hydrates. To 

 find these, they have a nose of e.x- 

 quisite performance, situated in the an- 

 tennie. or horn-like organs attached 

 to the head. To keep this very sensi- 

 tive nose always clean, and to collect 

 their food, they have a development of 

 mouth organs and legs that are not 

 surpassed even in the trank of the ele- 

 phant, or the still more marvelous 

 human hand. 



Again, in the rapid development of 

 the bee from the egg to imago, and in 

 the wondrous accomplishments of the 

 queen — which lays often double her 

 weight of eggs daily — we see what 

 good food can do. To accomplish this, 

 requires an alimentarj- system of very 

 high development ; and so, in the 

 digestive tube of the bee, we have a 

 perfection unequaled, I think, in the 

 whole animal kingdom. 



Passing those wonderful structures — 

 the tongue, mouth, honey-stomach, 

 stomach-mouth, and true stomach — 

 let us study the position, structm-e and 

 function of the several glands of bees. 



There are three pairs of glands well 

 developed in the worker-bees. The 

 first pair (u. h. g. in the Fig.) are high 

 up in the head, and consist each of a 

 tube with appended follicles. They 

 are packed within or between the com- 

 pound eyes, and empty on the side of 

 the floor of the mouth, just where their 

 secretion could mix most readily with 

 pollen, when eaten by the bees. 



The next glands are the lower head- 

 glands (1. h. g. of the Fig.). They are 

 situated in the head, below the others, 

 are racemose, and empty into a long 

 duct, which comes from the third, or 

 thoracic, glands. These latter (1. g. 

 in the Fig.) are situated in the thorax, 

 are also compound racemose, and, 

 with the lower head-glands, empty 

 just at the base of the tongue, where 

 their secretions would surelj' mix freely 

 with nectar as the bees gather it from 

 the flowers. 



Thus from the position of the mouths 

 of these ducts, no less than the admir- 

 able demonstrations of Schoenfield, we 

 are very sure of the functions of all 

 these secretions. The secretion from 

 the first is undoubtedly to digest the 

 pollen. These glands are rudimen- 

 tarj- in the queen, and absent in the 

 drones, which shows that the queen 

 and drones are fed in part by the 

 workers. These are best developed in 

 the young workers. This is as we 

 should expect. The young workers 

 may be said to digest the albuminous 



food for larviB, queen and drones ; to 

 digest this pollen, and form the rich 

 jelly, they need the upper head-glands, 

 and in them we find these glands the 

 largest, and very active. It seems 

 likely that the queen is not fed in win- 

 ter. If this is true, it shows again the 

 probability that bees when rather 

 quiescent, need no more nitrogenous 

 food than is already in their blood and 

 tissues. 



The probable function of the secre- 

 tion from the other four glands, is to 

 digest the nectar — to change the cane- 

 sugar of noctar to the grape-sugar of 

 honey ; for all honey is completely or 

 partially digested nectar. As honey is 

 not all fully digested, we see why the 

 drones and the queen need these 

 glands. They take honey, and unless 

 the honey is fully digested, the)- need 

 this secretion to complete it. 



I have little doubt but that the rea- 

 son why some honej% like basswood, 

 contains more cane-sugar, is because 

 it is gathered very rapidly, and so the 

 nectar is only partially digested. When 

 bees gather from 10 to 30 pounds of 

 nectar a day, as a colony often does 

 from linden, we do not wonder that 

 some undigested nectar is emptied into 

 the cells. This also accounts for the 

 great variation of honey in its compo- 

 sition — in relative amounts of cane and 

 and grape sugar — and the reason why 

 the ray of polarized light shifts so as- 

 tonishingly from left to right, or vice 

 versa ; and why chemists are so likely 

 to pronounce pure honey, adulterated. 



There is another interesting fact 

 connected with this subject, viz : 

 When we eat cane-sugar, we have to 

 digest it, while hone}' is already 

 digested for us. I have heard good 

 physicians say that some of our worst 

 diseases of the liver and kidneys were, 

 they believed, caused by eating cane- 

 sugar ; that such diseases were now 

 more prevalent than of old, is because 

 cane-sugar is more eaten now. If this 

 suggestion is true, then in persuading 

 people to eat honey we are lifting 

 from the labors of their digestive or- 

 gans — are causing the bees to do for 

 them what the bees do for their own 

 larva3, and are so conserving the 

 health of the people. Thus the in- 

 spired writer in commending honey, 

 was wise beyond the science of his 

 daj". 



Agiicultural College, Mich. 



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