126 



Human Physiology. 



of the powers of insect life. The working bee has an extensible 

 underlip, folded up when not in use, to reach the honey stored 

 in flowers; a bag on his thigh for pollen; mandibles for cutting, 

 tearing, etc. ; eyes looking forward and upward ; antennae to feel 

 and fashion his work in the dark, talk with, give orders, and 

 communicate intelligence; four wings, hind and forward hooking 

 together; a very sharp, barbed sting in its sheath, with a secreting 



organ, venom bag, and muscles to 

 squirt the poison when the sting 

 has penetrated. Need I speak of 

 his skill in fashioning a comb of 

 perfect six-sided cells of wax, hard 

 in hot climates and softer in cold, 

 of the provision of food for the 

 grubs, of the cleanliness and ven- 

 tilation of the hive, the carrying 

 out or waxing over of nuisances, and* 

 all the wonders of its polity and 

 government, the jealous mother 

 queen, the industrious, provident, 

 loyal neuters, the idle consort 

 princes, who, their function ac- 

 complished, are taken out and put 

 an end to? 



The instincts and capacities of ants are, perhaps, more 

 varied and wonderful than those of bees. They build cities 

 and palaces, larger in proportion to their size than the pyramids 

 of Egypt. They have males, females, neuters, labourers, 

 soldiers, slaves, and keep other insects to supply them with 

 food, as men keep cows. They make war, go on marauding 

 expeditions, build covered ways to protect them from the sun, 

 and tunnels under rivers. 



The cockroach lays its eggs in a shell with a longitudinal 

 slit, which the mother carefully closes and cements together, 



Fig. 5. BEE STING. 



