18 THE PRACTICAL BEE GUIDE. 



basal mentum, paired paraglossce (shown opposite pg), by which 

 liquids reach the front of the tongue for swallowing ; and lahial 

 palpi (Ip) each consisting of four joints, the two terminal joints 

 being very small and supplied with sensitive hairs. These 

 palpi embrace the tongue behind, as the maxillae embrace it 

 before, and together form a tube surrounding the tongue, as 

 stated. The lingua, or tongue (!) is connected at its roots with 

 the mentum, and is stretched out or withdrawn by the action 

 of the protractor linguce and retractor linguae, muscles. Covering 

 it is a sheath clothed with hairs some of which are sensitive. 

 At the extremity of the tongue is the spoon (6), which is provided 

 with delicate hairs. When large quantities of liquid are to 

 be taken up, the tongue, sweeping backwards and forwards 

 by means of a highly elastic rod running through its centre, 

 gathers the liquid upon its hairs ; the maxillae and the labial 

 palpi form a tube around it ; and, the front of the epipharynx 

 being lowered to close the space above the maxillae, the tube 

 is completed to the oesophagus or gullet (38), and the liquid 

 is taken up. When very small quantities of liquid are being 

 taken, the delicate hairs of the spoon, which are capable of 

 gathering up the most minute quantities, collect the liquid and 

 transfer it to grooves at the back of the spoon, from which it 

 is taken up to the paraglossae, where it reaches the front of the 

 tongue and is swallowed (58). The tongues of the queen and 

 drone are shorter than that of the worker, the last, only, of the 

 three having laid upon her the duty of gathering nectar from 

 the tiowers. 



33. Thorax. — The thorax (Fig. 7) consists of the three seg- 

 ments below the head, and styled the pro-thorax, next the 

 head, and bearing the front pair of legs (34), the meso-ihorax, 

 in which are articulated the second pair of legs and the first pair 

 of wings (35), and the ineta-thorax, which carries the third pair 

 of legs and the second pair of wings, and has the first segment 

 of the hind body, or abdomen, (37), fused with it. The thorax 

 is covered with hairs, long and feathered in the worker for the 

 collection of pollen, and in the drone short and spiny, with 

 great power of clinging, but unsuited to the gathering of 

 pollen. The queen is comparatively bare, her mission being 

 confined, chiefly, to the hive. 



" A httle device will make the bees our assistants in studying their 

 thoracic and leg structure. Take a thin string, about a foot long, 

 and at each end fix a dead bee, by tying round the neck. Drop the 

 suspended ' culprits ' between th« frames of a stock, so that the middle 

 of the string rests like a saddle on the top bar. In a couple of days, 

 every hair will be cleaned from the ' gibbets,' and their bodies 

 polished like those of beetles, so that the attachment of the wings, 

 thn spiracles, the lines dividing pro-, meso-, and meta-thorax, the 

 actual form of the leg joints, and the character of their articulations, 

 with many other ipitereating points, will be clearly visible," — Cheshire. 



