Miss Apis'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/d^ the 

 honey-sac, but they- 

 do not stay together, for the "' 

 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. 



