134 Physiology of Bees Sting. 
S'as a center, and thus the whole sting is thrown out some- 
thing as a knee joint works, and later the lancets are pushed 
alternately farther into the wound, till stopped by the valves 
striking against the farther end of the reservoir, in the cen- 
tral awl (Fig. 51, 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. 52, &, &) which doubtless 
determine where best to insert the sting. Leuckart dis- 
covered a second smaller gland (Fig. 23, S 2), mentioned 
also by Girard and Vogel, which also has a sac or reservoir 
where its secretion is stored. This secretion as first sug- 
gested by Leuckart, is supposed to act as a lubricant to keep 
the sting in good condition. The fact that muscles connect 
the various parts (Fig. 52), explains how a sting may act, 
even after the bee is apparently lifeless, or, what is even 
more wonderful, after it has been extracted from the bee. 
The barbs hold one lancet as a fulcrum for the other, and 
so long as the muscles are excitable, so long is a thrust pos- 
sible. 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 min- 
utes could still bring tears by their entering the flesh. In 
stinging, the awl first pierces, then the lancets follow. As 
the lancets’ push. in, the valves force the poison already 
crowded into the reservoir forward, close the central tube, 
when the poison is driven through the lancets themselves 
and comes out by the openings near the barbs (Fig. 51, 0, 
0). The drop of poison which we see on the sting when 
the bee is slightly irritated, as by jarring the hive on a cold 
day, is pushed through the central opening by muscular 
contraction attendant upon the elevation of the abdomen 
and extrusion of the sting. The young microscopists will 
find it dificult to see the barbs, especially of the central awl, 
as it is not easy to turn the parts so that they will show. 
Patience and persistence, however, will bring success. 
Owing to the barbs the sting is often sacrificed by use. As 
the sting is pulled out the body is so lacerated that the bee 
dies. Sometimes it will live several hours, but the loss of 
the sting is surely fatal, as my students have often showr 
