24 AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



in its endeavour to withdraw the sting, but if it be 

 abruptly shaken or brushed off, the whole sting is torn 

 out of its body and left behind. In that case the 

 muscles will continue to work and to force poison into 

 the wound for some time, if the sting be not carefully 

 extracted, which should be done without squeezing the 

 poison reservoirs at its base. The injury occasioned 

 to a bee by the tearing out of its sting must be very 

 severe, and it has been generally supposed that they 

 die immediately afterwards. Sir John Lubbock (Lord 

 Avebury), however, in his work on " Ants, Bees, and 

 Wasps," says : " Though bees that have stung and 

 lost their sting always perish, they do not die imme- 

 diately, and in the meantime they show little sign of 

 suffering from the terrible injury." He mentions 

 having seen a bee after losing its sting, remain twenty 

 minutes on the floor-board, enter the hive, return in an 

 hour, feed quietly on some honey, and again return to 

 the hive. 



It is said :-^" i. The poison of the hymenoptera is always 

 acid. 2. It is composed of a mixture of two liquids, one 

 strongly acid, the other feebly alkaline, and acts only when 

 both liquids are present. 3. These are produced iDy two 

 special glands that may be called the acid gland and the 

 alkaline gland. 4. These two glands both expel their 

 contents at the base of the throat from which the sting darts 

 out." 



LAYING OR FERTILE WORKERS. 



The existence of egg-laying workers in a hive upon 

 certain rare occasions was noted by J. Riem even 

 before Ruber's time, and fully confirmed by the latter. 

 They are, of course, quite useless for keeping up the 

 stock of a hive, as their eggs can only produce drones. 

 They generally make their appearance after a colony 

 becomes queenless and minus of the wherewithal to 

 raise a queen. 



The presence of a fertile worker may be known by 

 its eggs being scattered about promiscuously, some- 

 times on the sides and edges of the cells, and generally 



