Practical Beekeeping 



STRUCTURE OF THE HONEY BEE 



In order to understand the highly specialized appendages and 

 organs of the honey bee it will be profitable to first consider th* 

 structure of a typical insect. The main external structural charac- 

 ter separating insects from closely related forms, such as spideri, 

 scorpions, mites and even the larger animals as the cray-fishes and 

 lobsters, is the fact that they uniformly have six legs. These 

 may not in all cases be used for walking, as in the case of some but- 

 terflies which employ only four legs, yet have the other two present 

 in a dwarfed condition. 



The body of an insect is divided into three easily distinguish- 

 able portions, the head, the thorax and the abdomen. The origin 

 ot these three divisions can be better understood if a caterpillar be 

 examined. The caterpillar we find is composed of a series of rings, 

 or metameres, as they are called. The primitive ancestor of in- 

 sects is believed to have had more metameres than insects now 

 possess, and it is supposed that each segment had a pair of appenda- 

 ges. In the adult insect of today these rings are more or less unit- 

 ed into a varying number in different insects. The head is supposed 

 to be formed of several of these segments fused together with the 

 appendages modified to function as mouth parts and sense organs. 

 It is generally agreed that three segments with their three pairs of 

 appendages unite to form the thorax or second section of the body 

 which bears the three pairs of legs. The remaining segments are 

 usually easily distinguishable even in the adult, though in some 

 instances the last two or three are united and their appendages are 

 modified to aid in the deposition of eggs, or for defense, in the 

 form of a stinger, as is the case in the hornets and bees. 



Insects as a class are divided up into a series of orders based 

 upon structural differences. The six principal orders are: Or- 

 thoptera or grasshoppers, etc. ; Hemiptera or true bugs, including 



