Miss Abpis’s Honey-Sac. 43 
The reason is, Miss Apis strains her 
honey before she puts it in the comb. 
In her honey-sac is a little strainer which 
is very wonderful and very beautiful. 
It looks, as you can see in the picture, 
something like a flower-bud. Honey and 
pollen grains go together into th @ 
honey-sac, but they== — 
do not stay together, for the a 
pollen grains are gathered up by the action 
of muscles in the walls of the honey-sac, 
and passed through the strainer into the 
stomach. The strainer opens its mouth 
to let them pass, but as soon as they have 
done so, it closes. Of course quite a good 
deal of nectar passes through with the 
pollen, but this is squeezed back by the 
muscles of the stomach into the honey-sac 
through the closed mouth of the strainer. 
The mouth of the strainer is fringed with 
hairs that point backwards and cross each 
other when the strainer mouth is closed. 
So, though the nectar can squeeze through, 
