DIPTERA 351 



will find a home elsewhere. After this swarming all the super- 

 fluous queens are put to death. 



Contrary to common opinion it is found that bees really make 

 the honey which they store; it is therefore not the simple product 

 of flowers. The juices of the flowers, when swallowed, do not pass 

 into the stomach of the bee, 

 but into what is called the 

 honey-bag. There they remain 

 for some little time; and when 

 the bee pours them out again 

 they have become true honey. 



The pollen, when it is col- Brush and Pincers of Worker Bee 



lected, is placed on the bee's 



hind-legs, and the long hairs prevent it from falling off as the bee 



flies home. 



There is still a part of the bee which we ought to notice, and 

 that is its sting. Drones have none at all. But the queen bees 

 and the workers possess stings, which are connected, inside the 

 body, with two little thread-like bags of poison. When the insect 

 uses its sting it is pressed upon these bags, and a tiny drop of 

 poison, as the sting is hollow, passes into the wound. 



Enough has been said to show what very wonderful insects 

 bees are, and how much there is to admire and marvel at, both in 

 their bodies and in their work. 



DIPTERA 



The order DiPTERA ("two-winged" flies) contains a vast 

 number of species, but is represented by many well-known forms. 

 If we mention gnats, daddy-long-legs, house-flies, horse-flies, blow- 

 flies, blue-bottle-flies, hover-flies, midges, and the common flea we 

 shall have an excellent idea of the kind of creatures which the 

 group contains. 



We can only find space, however, for consideration of two of 

 these, namely, the Gnats and the Daddy-long-legs. 



