GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTUKE. 



Hfifl 



saliva in bees is to moisten the pollen, and the po- 

 sition of the duct adds powerfully to the argument, 

 then much would certainly be needed. The fact, 

 too, that drones and queens do not have these 

 glands, and do not prepare their own nitrogenous 

 food, is in harmony with, and, in fact, lends support 

 to this view.) 



We can find the same glands in other insects 

 which do not feed the larva at all, as Eristalis termr, 

 which has these glands fully as large as those of the 

 bee; and Nepa cincrea, which has these glands, and 

 they are very similar to those in the bee. 

 (This is surely a very strong argument.) 

 The product of these glands can not be spit into 

 the cells, for bees never spit. Nor is it at all likely 

 that this secretion is swallowed to be regurgitated 

 into the cell. Nature always empties her products 

 where they are to be used; so if there were milk- 

 glands they would either empty into the honey- 

 stomach, or else some apparatus would have been 

 developed that this secretion might have been 

 poured directly into the cells. 

 ([ think these points are excellent.) 

 These glands are in full function all winter, when 

 no brood is to be fed. They must then have another 

 purpose. 



(How is this when bees have no pollen for their 

 winter food? Of course, they usually have the pol- 

 len.) 



If a colony passes the winter queenless, and no 

 brood be fed for five or six months, and then re- 

 ceives a frame of brood which has been kept out of 

 the hive till the larvte are in a starving condition, 

 we observe that this brood is fed at once. ]f this 

 food is a product of glands used only for such pur- 

 pose, this would be absolutely impossible al'ter such 

 long rest. 

 (This is certainly a good point.) 

 If bees are fed honey mixed with indigo, the 

 larvsB are no longer fed, but commence to starve, 

 while the mature bees remain healthy. The indigo 

 prevents contraction of the stomach, and so regurgi- 

 tation is impossible; yet the food is digested and ab- 

 sorbed. If the larval food were a secretion it would 

 still be supplied. 

 (Granting these facts, theconclusion mustfollow.) 

 The following experiments of Schonfeld prove 

 that the larval food is chyle: 



Bees were fed honey mixed with carmine. In the 

 larval food of this colony, and also in the chyle of 

 the true stomach of the bees, were found the chili- 

 nous points of the cochineal insects from which the 

 carmine is made. The blood was normal, because 

 the fine particles were not digested, and, of course, 

 could not be absorbed. As a secretion is derived 

 from the blood, the secretion could not have what 

 the blood did not have. 



(This is also a crucial argument. The facts grant- 

 ed, the conclusion must be.) 

 Powdered iron was fed, with the same results. 

 Again, bacteria were fed to the bees— at first 

 Bacterium termo and then the bacillus of foul brood 

 —Bacilhis (ilveMlaris. In both eases the organisms 

 were found in the larval food, but not in the blood 

 of the nurse bee. As these were not in the blood, 

 they co\ild not exist in a secretion from the blood. 



(This is an interesting point, as it explains fully 

 why the fasting method, or the changing of the bees 

 to clean hives, cures this dreaded malady.) 



Von Planta finds the food of the young larvie as 

 follows: 



Queens. Workers. Drones. 



Albuminous 4(>..5 % 50.16?, ;!9.91% 



Oil 13.63 6.84 7.85 



Sugar 17.90 37.65 1.17 



We see that the food for the different kinds of 

 larvfe varies greatly in composition. If this is a 

 secretion it could not vary, as the glands could not 

 secrete arbitrarily a richer or a poorer substance. 

 But if this is chyle, it is easy to understand its 

 variability; it would necessarily result from a 

 variation in the food of the nurse-bees as to honey, 

 pollen, or water. The defenders of the gland theory 

 say that the secretion may be mixed in the honey- 

 stomach with honey or water — pollen is out of the 

 question, as we have seen thiit it is not given undi- 

 gested to the larv.e. The experiments with colored 

 honey shows this to be untrue. 



That chyme (Mr. S. uses this term to denote part- 

 ly digested food) is added to the secretion of the 

 gland is out of the question, because chyme is surely 

 prepared in the true stomach, and not in the honey- 

 stomach. In the chyme are the shells, or husks 

 (cuticulaj), of the pollen, but no whole pollen grains. 

 If we examine the stomachs of bees we shall never 

 find such empty pollen grains— husks —in the honey- 

 stomach, except in the case of quite young bees 

 just recently emerged from the cells. These bees 

 are fed by the older bees with chyme. In the true 

 stomach we can find these shells, if we examine a 

 bee at the proper stage of digestion. 



As soon as the larva fills the bottom of the cell— 

 from the close of the fourth day— the larva receives 

 chyme, or partially digested material, from the true 

 stomach, and this contains the cuticuht. At first 

 these are few, but more and more are added, so 

 that, just before the cell is capped, they are numer- 

 ous. This is also true of color when colored honey 

 is fed. 



(This is very interesting, and bears the impress 

 of truth. This chyme is fed to the larvte of work- 

 ers always, and sometimes, not always, I think, to 

 the larviP of queens.) 



The defenders of the gland theory say that it is 

 impossible that bees regurgitate any material from 

 the true stomach into the cells; for, as Schiemenz 

 has shown, the stomach-mouth is prolonged into the 

 true stomach, and so would act as a valve, and pre- 

 vent any of the contents of the true stomach from 

 passing back into the honey-stomach and mouth. 

 But Schonfeld has shown that this is a mistake. 

 The muscles are so arranged that this prolongation 

 can be drawn up, and so in nowise prevent regurgi- 

 tation. The bee itself proves that it can, for the 

 full-grown larva does receive chyme, the product of 

 the trvie stomach, and not of the honey-stomach. If 

 the bees can regurgitate chyme or partly digested 

 food, they surely can chyle, or that which is fully 

 digested. This is chyme and not pollen, as the 

 husks show. 



Why should we be surprised that the bee does 

 this? It is a master of regurgitation, vomiting up 

 all its honey, and some of it several times. A full 

 understanding of the stomach-mouth enables us to 

 understand how it regurgitates its chyme and chylci 

 Selma, Texas. L. Stachelhauseis. 



Friend Cook, I congratulate you on hav- 

 ing got liold of and brought out a man Who 

 is so t'amiliiU' and so fully conversant with 

 these valuable experiments of Leuckart, 

 Von Siebold, Schonfeld, and other German 

 naturalists. The above facts remind one of 



