ayes: * 
NATURE 
189 
The separate parts of the mouth of the bee and their 
power of moving having been considered, it remains to 
examine what use the bee makes of them in its different 
actions. 
1. In order to empty the deepest honey tubes acces- 
sible to it, the bee stretches out all the moveable parts of 
its sucking apparatus (lora, cardines, laminz, maxillar 
palpi, and tongue) in the same manner as is shown in 
Figs. 1 and 2, with the only difference that the two first 
joints of the labial palpi sheathe the tongue from beneath, 
and that the laminz closely embrace the mentum and the 
basal part of the tongue from above. Then the terminal 
g hairy whorls of the tongue, protruded as far as possible 
and advanced to the bottom of the honey-tube, being 
wetted with honey, the bee, turning backwards the car- 
dines (c), withdraws the mentum, together with the tongue 
and the labial palpi, so far that the laminz are no 
longer overtopped by the labial palpi, and that the laminze 
and the labial palpi together, closely embracing the 
tongue, form a sucking-pipe, of which only the part 4-2 
(Fig. 4) of the tongue is prominent. But almost at the 
same time the bee, folding the base of the tongue into the 
tubular extremity of the mentum, withdraws the terminal 
hairy whorls wetted with honey into the sucking-pipe, in 
which the honey is forthwith driven downwards to the 
oral opening by the erection of the whorls of hairs 
progressing quickly from the tip of the tongue towards 
its base, and simultaneously by the enlargement of the 
interior abdominal hollows connected with the cesophagus, 
which are visible from the outside by the swelling of the 
abdomen, and which must suck the honey towards the 
cesophagus. 
Fig. 4 shows the head of a humble-bee in a 
medium sucking position, When from this position 
the base of the tongue is folded into the hollow ex- 
tremity of the mentum (as illustrated by Fig. 3), 
the part £2 of the tongue wetted with honey is 
withdrawn into the sucking-pipe. Now when the lora 
(2 in Fig. 4, directed downwards) are turned backwards 
round their food-points, the base of the sucking pipe 
(near mp Fig. 4) is withdrawn to the opening of the 
mouth (between the base of the two mandibule, md and 
the labrum, /é7, Fig. 4, below the epipharynx ¢f, Fig. 1), 
and the honey is, by pressing and sucking, driven to the 
cesophagus. When the lora (/) are again turned forwards, 
the whole sucking apparatus is pushed forward double 
the length of the lora; and now the cardines turning 
forward, the mentum with its appendages again advances 
double the length of the cardines, while the maxillz remain 
atthe same place, and the laminz from this cause embrace 
only the mentum and the basal portion of the tongue ; 
when at last the base of the tongue infolded in the 
tubular mentum is stretched out, the tongue is again 
protruded to its fullest extent, and the terminal whorls of 
hairs are again wetted with honey at the bottom of the | 
honey-tube of the flower. 
In a flower rich in honey, a humble bee may be ob- 
served executing four, five, and sometimes more, even 
eight or ten separate acts of suction, probably accom- 
panied by as many protrusions of the tip of the tongue 
into the honey, and withdrawals of it and of the whole 
sucking- pipe. 
I am fully convinced that the movements of the oral 
apparatus of the bees are as described ; for by intoxi- 
cating honey- and humble-bees by chloroform, and 
immersing the tip of their tongue into a solution of sugar, I 
sometimes succeeded in seeing the movements described 
performed sufficiently slowly to discern each separate act 
very well. What occurred within the sheath of the tongue 
formed by the laminz and the maxillary palpi, was of 
course not visible, but bending them aside after wetting 
the tip of the tongue with the solution of sugar, I some- 
times saw the erection of the whorls of hairs progressing 
from the tip towards the base of the tongue, 
i 
Hence undoubtedly the statement of zoologists, who, 
absolutely denying the sucking power of bees, assert that 
they lick or lap the honey in a manner similar to a ‘dog 
or a cat when drinking, must be essentially modified. 
The terminal whorls of hairs are filled with honey by 
adhesion ; this honey withdrawn into the sheath of the 
tongue is driven towards the cesophagus by a double cause, 
first by the pressure of the erect whorls of hairs, and 
secondly by suction. HERMANN MULLER 
(To be continued) 
ON SOME REMARKABLE FORMS OF ANIMAL 
LIFE FROM GREAT DEEPS OFF THE 
NORWEGIAN COAST# 
‘Ee name of George Ossian Sars is honourably con- 
nected with a very interesting chapter in the history 
of deep-sea research. As early as 1850, his illustrious 
father, Dr. Michael Sars, had challenged Edward Forbes’s 
conclusions respecting the bathymetrical terminus of 
animal life. He remarked,} that at least in the Norwe- 
gian Seas, it appeared to extend much beyond the limit 
which the English naturalist had fixed for it. Forbes 
had not dredged below 230 fathoms, and at this depth he 
had only obtained two living Mollusca and a couple of 
Serpulze ; hence he was led to place the zero of animal 
life at 300 fathoms. Sars, on the contrary, even at the 
early period just mentioned, had obtained from a depth 
of 300 fathoms a number of animals, including a species 
of Coral, Molluscs, Polyzoa, &c.; and he sagaciously 
remarked that there was evidence of the existence 
of a vigorous animal life at this great depth, inasmuch as 
some of the species (¢.2. Terabratula septigera and Lima 
excavata) were the largest known representatives of their 
respective genera. In confirmation of his opinion, he 
was able to offer, in 1864, a Catalogue of 92 animals, 
which had been obtained in depths varying from 200 to 
300 fathoms. More recently his son has devoted him- 
self with much energy and success to deep-sea investiga~ 
tion, and in 1868 had extended his dredgings to 450 
fathoms, and added no less than 335 species to those 
already published. He says :—“I found to my great 
surprise at this enormous depth, not ... a poor and 
oppressed Fauna, but on the contrary a richly developed 
and varied animal life... . And so far was I from ob- 
serving any sign of diminished intensity in this animal 
life at increased depths that it seemed, on the contrary, 
as if there was just beginning to appear a rich and in 
many respects peculiar deep-sea fauna, of which only a 
very incomplete notion had previously existed.” Amongst 
the new forms thus obtained was the famous Ahizzocrinus 
Lofotensis, descended from Oolitic ancestry, which fur- 
nished, according to Dr. Carpenter, “a _ principal 
‘motive’” of the Lzghtning expedition. It is interesting 
to learn that these productive dredgings at the great 
depth of 200-450 fathoms were accomplished in an ordi- 
nary fishing-boat with a crew of three men, 
In the important paper which forms the subject of the 
present notice, Mr. G. O. Sars has given us an account 
of some of the results of his dredgings in the “ great 
deeps ” off the Coast of Norway, founded partly on the 
posthumous manuscripts of the late Prof. Sars, and partly 
on his own investigations. Various new species of Mol- 
lusca, Annelids, Corals, and Sponges, all of them dwellers 
in depths varying from 100 to about 500 fathoms, 
are described, and illustrated by excellent figures. But 
that which gives a peculiar and distinctive interest to the 
work is the elaborate memoir on a remarkable Polyzoon, 
taken in the year 1866, from a depth of 120 fathoms, at 
Skraaven, in Lofoten. This unique animal is not only 
* Partly from posthumous manuscripts of the late Prof, Dr. Michael Sars 
By George Ossian Sars. See 
+‘ Beretningom en i Sommerenn, 1849, foretagen Zoologisk Reis¢ i Lofoter. 
og Finmarken,” p. 13. 
