60 THE BEE keeper's MANTTAL. 



most curious and complicated structure, which, when not 

 in use, is nicely folded under its abdomen ; with this, it licks 

 or brushes up the honey, which is thence conveyed to its 

 honey-bag. This receptacle is not larger than a very 

 small pea, and is so perfectly transparent, as to appear when 

 filled, of the same color with its contents ; it is properly 

 the first stomach of the bee, and is surrounded by muscles 

 which enable the bee to compress it, and empty its contents 

 through her proboscis into the cells. (See Chapter on 

 Honey.) 



The hinder legs of the worker are furnished with a spoon- 

 shaped hollow or basket, to receive the pollen or bee bread 

 which she gathers from the flowers. (See Chapter on Pol- 

 len.) 



Every worker is armed with a formidable sting, and when 

 provoked, makes instant and effectual use of her natural 

 weapon. The sting, when subjected to microscopic exam- 

 ination, exhibits a very curious and complicated mechanism. 

 " It is moved* by muscles which, though invisible to the eye, 

 are yet strong enough to force the sting, to the depth of one 

 twelfth of an inch, through the thick skin of a man's hand. 

 At its root are situated two glands by which the poison is se- 

 creted : these glands uniting in one duct, eject the venemous 

 liquid along the groove, formed by the junction of the two 

 piercers. There are four barbs on the outside of each pier- 

 cer : when the insect is prepared to sting, one of these 

 piercers, having its point a little longer than the other, first 

 darts into the flesh, and being fixed by its foremost beard, 

 the other strikes in also, and they alternately penetrate 

 deeper and deeper, till they acquire a firm hold of the flesh 



thought best to use, as little as possible, the technical terms and mi- 

 nute anatomical descriptions of the scientific entomologist. 

 *Bevan. 



