ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 965 



friendly relations with them, such as some of the Aphides ; those 

 which act as scavengers, like the dipterous Dinarda, Stenus, and 

 Homalota ; and thirdly, those which are not guests but robbers, as are 

 some species of Coleoptera. 



(Esophagus of the Honey Bee.* — If the honey stomach of a bee 

 be examined, there will be found on its under part and a little to one 

 side, a small body about half the size of a poppy seed, and having a 

 yellowish-red reflex ; this organ is recognized by Pastor Schonfeld as 

 a second or internal mouth, and in his opinion it is the possession of 

 this organ which makes the bee what it is, namely, a honey bee. 

 For this organ alone enables it to store up honey in its honey 

 stomach, and then to pour it into the cells ; it gives the power of 

 making wax and of withstanding the winter's cold. 



If this organ, taken from the freshly killed bee, be placed under 

 the Microscope, four lips round its top will be seen oj>ening and 

 shutting in rapid motion. The yellowish-red appearance proceeds 

 from the intima into the structure of which much chitin enters ; this 

 renders the organ, especially about the base of 

 the lips, so hard that it creaks under the knife ^ IG - 200. 



or needle. If now the intima be cut through, 

 after separating it from its attachments, and 

 spread out, it presents the appearance given in 

 fig. 200. Just below the junction of each 

 adjacent pair of lips is an opening, and on the 

 smooth sharp lip edges of the intima is a border 

 or selvage beset with hairs; the points of which 

 are directed backwards. This selvage is easily detached with a 

 needle from the intima. 



If a longitudinal section be made through the middle of the 

 honey stomach and the upper part of the chyle stomach, there will 

 be found numerous bundles of longitudinal muscular fibres, suc- 

 ceeded by bundles of circularly disposed fibres which surround the 

 connection between the honey and chyle stomachs, or the neck of the 

 organ. Upon the circular muscles lie the propria and a very delicate 

 transition membrane. The neck of the organ is lengthened in such 

 a manner that it projects free into the cavity of the chyle stomach, 

 forming a kind of fold or prolongation, so that the neck can be 

 lengthened or shortened. From a consideration of the anatomical 

 construction of the organ, the author arrives at the conclusion 

 that the valves are not a mere passive mechanically acting apparatus. 

 Great numbers of the muscles are striated, and therefore must be 

 in all probability under the direct control of the insect, which has 

 a voluntary power over both the honey and chyle stomachs. The 

 lips are kept open when the animal desires to take in either honey 

 or pollen, and vice versa. For these reasons the author determines 

 the organ to be an oesophagus, and so calls it. He then goes on to 

 remark the mechanism of the duplication or prolongation back- 

 wards of the stomach. If the honey stomach be full of pollen no 



* Arch. f. Aiiat. u. Physiol. (Physiol. Abth.), 1S86, pp. 451-8 (1 fig.). 



