HEAD AND MOUTH, 

 A magnified view of tte head of the drone is showa in fig. 9. 



Antennse. . . 



Compound eyes . 



MoQdibles . . . 



, Compound eyes 



. . Haudibles 



Tongue 



Fig. 9. — ^Head of a Drone (magnified). 



The mandihles, or upper pair of jaws, in the workers are strong, 

 homy and sharp. They are the tools with which it performs its 

 various lahours. Meeting over the other parts of the mouth, they 

 are covered in front by the lahrum or upper lip. The maxiUee, or 

 lower jaws, on the contrary are pUahle and leathery, and hold the 

 objects upon which the insect works with its mandibles. 



The tongue, which is long and endowed with great fieiibility, 

 is moved by a complex system of powerful muscles. "Wben it is 

 in a state of inaction, it is withdrawn within its sheaths, the 

 end which protrudes beyond them being doubled up under the 

 head and neck, the sheaths consisting of two pair of strong 

 scales. 



24. Wlen the bee lights upon the blossom of a flower from 

 which it desires to extract the nectar, it darts out its tongue from 

 the sheaths that invest it, and having 

 pierced the petals and stamina where 

 the treasure is hidden, it inserts its 

 tongue which moves about in every 

 direction in virtue of its great flexibilily 

 and muscular power, and probes to the 

 very bottom the floral cells, sweeping 

 their surfaces and draining them to the 

 last drop of their precious juice. Having 

 thus collected the nectar upon the 

 tongue, that organ being drawn back 



into the mouth, the liquid sweets are projected back into the 

 pharynx, and thence into the throat or oesophagus. 



25. It must be observed also, that the tongue is not only flexible 

 but susceptible of inflation, so as to form a sort of bag,* in which 



Fig. 10. — Worker extracting 

 nectar from a blossom. 



Dr. Bevaa on tte Honey Bee, p. 298. 



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