8498 The Zoologist — April, 1873. 



commonly supposed that the smaller form was only a second brood, but this 

 did not appear to be the case. 



Papers read, dx. 



' On the Geodephagous Coleoptera of Japan, chiefly collected by Mr. 

 George Lewis,' by H. W. Bates, F.L.S., &c. 



' Contributions to Entomological Bibliography up to 186'2, No. 1,' by 

 Albert MiiUer, F.L.S. 



Mr. F. Smith read the following translation of some notes : — ' On the 

 Salivary Organs of the Honey Bee,' by C. Th. v. Siebold. 



" At the annual agricultural meeting held in October, 1871, at Munich, 

 a well-known apiarian, Herr Mehring, had exhibited a peculiar kind of 

 honey, named by him ' Kunst-Honig ' (artificial honey), which he had pro- 

 duced by feeding his bees exclusively with malt. This honey excited great 

 interest; and the question was raised (and denied by many), whether this 

 substance was real honey ; and whether, consequently, the bee was able to 

 change malt-sugar in its stomach into honey. The physiologico-cheraical 

 part of the inquiry into the production of the bee was talven up in Liebig's 

 laboratory by Dr. Von Schneider, who, unfortunately, was prevented from 

 carrying the investigation to the end, but arrived at the conclusion that 

 the hydrates of carbon (malt-sugar and malt-deatrin) contained in the malt 

 are actually changed by the bee into honey-sugar; and that Mehring's 

 honey does certainly not differ from other honies, except in the absence of 

 specific aromas which are imparted to them from the flowers on which the 

 bees have been collecting. Practically, Herr Mehring's discovery is of 

 importance ; inasmuch as the malt-food prepared by him contains not only 

 all the ingredients necessary for the life of the bee, but also for the forma- 

 tion of honey ; and therefore can be used with advantage in parts of the 

 country where flowering plants are scarce. With regard to the wax, Dr. 

 Yon Schneider maintains that it is undoubtedly a secretion of the honey- 

 bee, formed chiefly out of diff'erent kinds of sugar ; but that the production 

 of wax from sugar is not continued without the simultaneous addition of 

 food containing nitrogen. After the fact had thus been established that honey 

 and wax are not substances found ready made, and simply gathered by the 

 bee ; but productions which have undergone chemical changes through 

 having come in contact with the secretions of the insect ; Pi'of. Von Siebold 

 directed his attention to the investigation of the secreting organs, a portion 

 of the anatomy which, indeed, had previously been entirely neglected, but 

 is now treated for the first time with regard to the special functions those 

 organs appear to perform in the preparation of the products of the bee. 

 Prof. Von Siebold distinguishes three entirely distinct and very complicated 

 systems of salivary glands ; two of which, a lower and an upper, are situated 

 in the head, and the third in the anterior part of tlie thorax, the latter 



