80 



BEE PRODUCTS. 



brood cells. The worker brood cells are the most regular, and average 

 twenty-eight to thirty cells to the square inch. The drone cells are 

 larger, and range about eighteen to the square inch. The structure of 

 the queen cells has been described elsewhere. 



THE STING. The accompanying figure illustrates the structure of 

 sting and the gland attending it. This weapon is brought into use, 



not alone as protection 

 against intruders, such as 

 man, but is much used 

 against the unwelcome 

 visitors of its own tribe. 

 The formic acid and 

 the other toxic element 

 probably present in the 

 fluid injected from the 

 gland into the body of 

 the one attacked, while 

 discomfiting to us, is 

 quite deadly to bees. 

 This poisonous fluid can 

 be secreted from the 

 blood-cells of the bees, 

 but when it is injected 

 into the tissues, by means 

 of another's sting, death 

 follows When the honey- 

 bee stings the human 

 flesh the sting generally 

 remains, and the bee, if 

 not killed before, dies on 

 account of the wound caused by the tearing away of the organs con- 

 nected with the sting. 



"The third sting is composed of two spears of a polished, chestnut- 

 colored, horny substance, which, supported by the sheath, makes a 

 very sharp weapon. In the act of stinging, the spears emerge from 

 the sheath about two-thirds of their length. Between them and on 

 each of them is a small groove through which the liquid coming from 

 the poison-sac is ejected into the wound. 



" Each spear of the sting has about nine barbs, which are turned 

 back like those of a fish-hook and prevent the sting from being easily 

 withdrawn. When the insect is prepared to sting, one of these spears, 

 having a little longer point than the other, first darts into the flesh, 

 and being fixed by its foremost barb, the other strikes in also, and 



FIG. 2. The sting of the worker bee, and its appenda- 

 ges. (Enlarged, from Girard.) a. sting; 6, poison-sac ; 

 c c, poison glands ; d d, secreting bags. 



