HEAD AND MOUTH. 

 A magnified view of the head of the drone is shown in fig. 9. 



Antennae . . . \ , J . . . Antennae 



Compound eyes . . .' J|lj($I0ffl| ..H^' Compound eyes 



Mandibles . . . m Mandibles 



. . . Tongue 

 Fig. 9. Head of a Drone (magnified). 



The mandibles, or upper pair of jaws v in the workers are strong, 

 horny and sharp. They are the tools with which it performs its 

 various labours. Meeting over the other parts of the mouth, they 

 are covered in front by the labrum or upper lip. The maxillse, or 

 lower jaws, on the contrary are pliable and leathery, and hold the 

 objects upon which the insect works with its mandibles. 



The tongue, which is long and endowed with great flexibility, 

 is moved by a complex system of powerful muscles. When it is 

 in a state of inaction, it is withdrawn within its sheaths, the 

 end which protrudes beyond them being doubled up under the 

 head and neck, the sheaths consisting of two pair of strong 

 scales. 



24. When the bee lights upon the blossom of a flower from 

 which it desires to extract the nectar, it darts out its tongue from 

 the sheaths that invest it, and having 



pierced the petals and stamina where 

 the treasure is hidden, it inserts its 

 tongue which moves about in every 

 direction in virtue of its great flexibility 

 and muscular power, and probes to the 

 very bottom the floral cells, sweeping 

 their surfaces and draining them to the 

 last drop of their precious juice. Having Fig 10 ._ W( ker extracting 



thus Collected the nectar Upon the nectar from a blossom. 



tongue, that organ being drawn back 



into the mouth, the liquid sweets are projected back into the 



pharynx, and thence into the throat or oesophagus. 



25. It must be observed also, that the tongue is not only flexible 

 but susceptible of inflation, so as to form a sort of bag,* in which 



* Dr. Bevan on the Honey Bee, p. 298. 



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