Miss Apis’s Tongue. 37 
sheaths are larger and stronger than the 
sheaths of the honey-bee. Indeed, they 
make quite a strong little dagger with 
which Madam Bombus, the bumble-bee, can 
cut a hole in a flower. 
When Madam Bombus finds a flower with 
sweets which she cannot reach without 
taking too much trouble, she goes to the 
spot beneath which the sweet she wants is 
concealed, and, with a downward blow of her 
convenient dagger, rips open the interven- 
ing membrane. Then she unfurls her flag in 
triumph. In this case her flag is her tongue, 
you understand. She inserts it in the hole 
she has made and licks out the sweet juice. 
After she is gone, comes the turn of Miss 
Apis, who puts her tongue through the hole 
that her larger and stronger friend has made, 
and takes her share also. 
Since the nectaries of the flowers usually 
fill up as soon as the bees have licked them 
out, Miss Apis may get as much honey as 
though Madam Bombus had not taken any. 
