Miss Apis’s Sting. 75 
gers; all daggers are more or less sharp, 
though few as sharp as Miss Apis’s. 
But the thing that distinguishes her 
dagger, and makes it more terrible 
than any other, is its barbs. Generally 
daggers are smooth, and make a clean 
cut, coming out as easily as they go 
in. Not so Miss Apis’s dagger. Al- 
though it is so tiny that we cannot 
see any barbs with the naked eye, 
still they are there. Instead of being 
smooth, it is fuller of barbs than a 
fish-hook, as you can see in the pic- 
ture, which is a very much enlarged Mss Apis's. 
view of Miss Apis’s sting. For magnified. 
while an ordinary fish-hook has but 
one or two barbs, this little stinger has 
ten pairs! It is not an easy matter to 
An or- 
dinry get a fish-hook out of your finger if 
fish it gets in beyond the barbs, as those of 
you who have ever had such an unpleasant 
experience know very well. If one pair of 
barbs hold so well, think how well ¢en pairs 
