TWM M'mmmicmm mmm jO'tjKifMiLr. 



225 



out loss of material, it is so arranged 

 that it can, by an automatic movement, 

 throw the " pulvillus " back and let its 

 claws come in contact with the surface 

 on which it is walking, or it can turn 

 up the claws and let the " pulvillus " 

 touch, at pleasure. 



ItH PoIIen-Sacs. 



You have all, no doubt, seen bees in 

 the summer, when they were busy, 

 come home to the hive with a peculiar 

 looking substance sticking to the inside 

 of their hind legs. This substance is 

 the pollen of the male organs of flow- 

 ers, and it furnishes part of the food of 

 the nurse bees. The little cavity in 

 which it is fastened is called the " pol- 

 len-basket," for it is a cavity that is 

 formed by stiff hairs and the shape of 

 the leg. The bee gathers this pollen 

 with its tongue and the hairs of its legs 

 and body, and then, by the use of the 



Bee's Tongue, 



same tongue and legs, it forms the pol- 

 len into minute balls. It then takes 

 them up with the front legs, passes 

 them back to the middle legs, and with 

 these packs them snugly away in the 

 pollen-baskets of the hind legs until 

 the pollen stands up and hangs over 

 much like the way that hay does when 

 loaded into a wagon bed. There is a 

 little spine or spur, on one of the joints 

 of the second, or middle, legs by which 

 it removes this pollen, when it reaches 

 the hive, very much as a man puts a 

 crowbar under a stone to lift it up. 



There is one other little organ on 

 each of the front legs, to which I desire 

 briefly to call your attention, and then 

 I must leave this part of the subject 

 and hasten on to other things of inter- 

 est. 1 can assure you , however , I have 



only hinted at the wonderful organism 

 of a bee's leg when I have done this. 

 There is a peculiar notch, or opening, 

 on each of the front legs with which a 

 bee wipes its nose very much as you 

 have seen an unclean boy wipe his with 

 his coat sleeve. It is also used to clean 

 off its tongue. It is very hard to de- 

 scribe without an illustration, but it is 

 none the less useful to the bee. 



A bee has four wings which also have 

 their points of attachment in the tho- 

 rax. They, too, are very strong, and, 

 on the whole, are a Que piece of organ- 

 ism. When at rest, they are folded 

 very closely to the body and occupy 

 but little space. They carry a contriv- 

 ance for increasing the bee's wing sur- 

 face, and at the same time not have 

 them extend beyond the body when 

 folded. A flying animal must have a 

 wing surface proportionate to the size 

 of its body. A common blue fly has 

 two very large wings, and when at rest 

 they extend out from the body so that, 

 at the widest points, they are about 

 one-half inch from tip to tip. This 

 would not do for a bee, for it must be 

 able to enter a cell Hve of which make 

 an inch. Of course, a bee has two 

 wings on each side, but this would not 

 aid it any in flight, if they were not so 

 constructed that the bee could use 

 them as one. A simple bar on one 

 wing and a row of hooks on the other 

 enables the bee to do this. 



The abdomen, the third and last part 

 of a bee's body, has no external organs 

 except eight wax-pockets, of which I 

 will speak further on. These, however, 

 are found only on the worker bee, not 

 on the drone or queen. 



Internal Formation. 



The internal anatomy of a bee is 

 equally as interesting as the external. 

 They do not breathe by the use of lungs, 

 as we do, but by openings, called ' spir- 

 acles, " of which the bee has fourteen : 

 five on each side of the abdomen, and 

 one behind the insertion of each wing. 

 Its internal organs are located in the 

 posterior part of the body, only one of 

 which we have time to describe, or in 

 which any special interest centers. 

 This is the honey-sac, which is locat- 

 ed in the anterior part of the abdomen, 

 and is in connection with the mouth by 

 means of the (esophagus, which extends 

 through the thorax to the head. It has 

 nothing to do with the true stomach of 

 a bee, except it is in connection with 

 it by an opening which is in the end 

 opposite the entrance to the oesopha- 

 gus. This opening is stopped by a 

 plug so arranged that the bee can open 

 and close it at pleasure. In the honey- 

 sac the bee stores and carries home 

 the nectar which it gathers from the 

 flowers. It is furnished with muscles 

 which enables the bee to empty it 

 through its esophagus and mouth. It 

 can also remove the stopper, referred 

 to above, and permit any food, which 

 the honey-sac contains, to pass on 

 into the true or chyle stomach, if it de- 

 sires to do so. So, you see, a bee al- 

 ways carries its dinner-basket with it, 

 and it generally carries some dinner in 

 the basket except when goingto the Held 

 in search of stores. When bees swarm 

 they All their honey-sacs and take this 



much with them from their old home 

 ready to set up business in the new. 



A bee also has four pairs of secretory 

 glands, to which we may call your at- 

 tention further on. One pair is located 

 in the jaws, two in the head, and one 

 in the thorax. 



We have sometimes heard it remark- 

 ed of men who seem very dull, that 

 their brains were in their heels. Now, 

 while this ia not exactly true of bees, 

 yet it comes very near having brains, 

 or brain substance in the form of gang- 

 lia, all over it. They are found on the 

 median line of the body throughout its 

 entire length, there being no less than 

 flve of these ganglia in the abdomen, 

 and three in the thorax, with an abim- 

 dance of nerves extending to all of the 

 organs that have their points of attach- 

 ment in it. This accounts for the won- 

 derful tenacity of life manifested by 

 these little creatures when maimed or 

 decapitated. It has been remarked that 

 drones have sometimes been known to 



Bee\s Respiratory Organs. 



live longer, when in conflnement, with 

 the head cut off than they did without. 

 I have often been surprised to see bees, 

 whose heads had been mashed flat, 

 walking along as though nothing had 

 happened to them. 



The term bee is used in two senses. 

 First, to denote the full-grown bee, es- 

 pecially the worker; the second and 

 broader signification includes the bee 

 in every condition. I have been using 

 it almost entirely in the first sense, but 

 permit me now to call your attention 

 to the bee iu its 



Stu^oK of DcTelopiiient. 



1 will begin with the egg , which is 

 white, about the size of a small pin- 

 head, and shaped very much like the 

 egg of a bird. It is deposited in the 

 bottom of a cell by the queen, which 

 cell has been previously prepared for 

 its reception by the workers. ^Vhen 

 Hrst laid it is covered by a glutinous 

 substance which immediately hardens 



