178 



THE AMERICAN^ APICULTURIST. 



by pressing them with a piece of 

 wood, the bees come off victorious, 

 and are not hindered in their labors 

 in the fields. 



THE WORKER BEES ; THEIR SEX AND 

 ORGANIZATION. 



The third kind of bees which are 

 found in a hive are called the 

 worker bees, because they do all 

 the work. These constitute the 

 majority of the colony and have 

 their varied occupations. They be- 

 long, according to previously men- 

 tioned observations, to no sex, 

 because they are alreadj' undevel- 

 oped females, but would have be- 

 come fully developed, had they 

 been bred in large cells. Yet I 

 will leave undecided the opinions 

 and conjectures of different natu- 

 ralists who maintain that some 

 worker bees lay drone eggs. I 

 have at least with my own eyes of- 

 ten seen the queen laying drone 

 eggs, as well as worker eggs, but no 

 worker bees to lay drone eggs, and 

 one can observe with the microscope 

 no sign of any genital organs. 



But I'egarding their other mem- 

 bers : their proboscis or tongue is 

 very distinct and of a chestnut 

 color. Its structure is very won- 

 derful and too detailed to be de- 

 scribed here. They lick therewith 

 the honey from the cui)s of the 

 flowers, and bring it by various 

 movements to the mouth and con- 

 vey it to the oesophagus, at whose 

 opening the really true tongue, and 

 indeed a fleshy one, is, which takes 

 and sends to the stomach the nour- 

 ishment brought hither. As the 

 oesophagus is extremely narrow, it 

 will not permit of the passage of 



pollen or kindred substances ; but 

 the proboscis is very haiiy, and re- 

 sembles the tail of a fox. With it 

 they lap up much honey, so that a 

 colony of bees is able in one day to 

 bring in four maas (about sixteen 

 pounds) of hone3\ 



On the head, between the eyes, 

 they have two antennae, which are 

 very sensitive, and therewith they 

 perceive all variations in the atmos- 

 phere. Indeed, perhaps and veiy 

 naturally has the naturalist given 

 them another sense which we know 

 not what to call. 



At least, it is extraordinaiy how 

 acute is their sense of feeling 

 among themselves,^ and at what a 

 great distance they can scent the 

 honey. They have four wings, 

 namely, two large which cover the 

 body and underneath these two 

 small, which together reflect the 

 colors of the rainbow, when the 

 rays of light or the sun falls upon 

 them. Beneath these are two lung 

 openings, by means of which they 

 breathe, besides which the^^ have 

 four on the sides of the breast. Of 

 their six legs, the two foremost 

 serve also as hands. Each leg has 

 two large and two small hooks, and 

 the other and third pair of legs 

 have each a brushlike part beset 

 with stiff" hairs which they use in the 

 collection and deposition of their 

 little balls of pollen. On the outside 

 of the hindmost legs is formed a 

 spoonlike cavity in which the pollen 

 after being rolled into pellets is 

 placed and carried to the hive. 



C To be continued.) 



>Huber considered the antennae not only 

 as organs of communication, but of sight as 

 well. 



