OR, MANUAI< OF THE APIARY. 



159 



valves striking against the farther end of the reservoir, in the 

 central awl (Fig. 74, S). As Hyatt correctly states in his 

 excellent article, the so-called sheath first cuts or pierces, then 

 the lancets deepen the wound. Beside the sting are two feeler- 

 like organs (Fig. 7S, E, E), which doubtless determine where 

 best to insert the sting, though usually there would seem little 

 time for consideration. Leuckart discovered a second smaller 

 gland (Fig. 38, Sg,) mentioned also by Girard and Vogel, 

 which also has a sac or reservoir where its secretion is stored. 

 This secretion, as first suggested by L,euckart, is supposed to 

 act as a lubricant to keep the sting in good condition. The 

 fact that muscles connect the various parts (Fig. 75) explains 



Fig. 75. 



Sting of Worker-Bee, modi/led from Hyatt and Bryant. 



how a sting may act, even after the bee is apparently lifeless, 

 fir, what is even more wonderful, after it has been extracted 

 from the bee. Dr. Miller thinks a sting extracted months 

 before may still act. The barbs hold one lancet as a fulcrum 

 for the other, and so long as the muscles are excitable, so long 

 is a thrust possible. Thus I have known a bee, dead for hours, 

 to sting. A wasp, dead more than a day, with the abdomen 

 cut off, made a painful thrust, and stings extracted for several 



