42 



THE ANATOMY OF THE HONEY BEE. 



of the mandibular glands must be intended for softening the wax 

 when it is worked in the jaws. The secretion of the glands is said 

 to be very volatile and strong smelling and to have an acid reaction. 

 It is probably entirely possible that it may have a solvent effect upon 

 the wax, or even, when mixed with it, change somewhat the chemical 

 com2DOsition of this substance; in fact, some investigators claim that 

 the wax of the comb differs chemically from that freshly taken from 

 the wax plates. Even this explanation, however, does not seem en- 

 tirely satisfactory, for the only occasions on which the queen has any- 

 thing to do with wax is when she gnaws her way out of her cell after 

 hatching or bites her way into the cells of young queens in order 

 to sting them. However, these occasional uses by the queen of her 

 mandibles appear to be important enough to maintain the large size 

 of these organs in the queen, and it may be reasonable to assume that 

 the demand upon their glands is likewise a large one when it does 



occur. Yet the mandibles of the 

 queen are toothed and sharp 

 pointed, which should provide her 

 with sufficient cutting power both 

 to emerge from her own cell and to 

 enter the cells of other queens, and 

 so, on the whole, the opinion of 

 Schiemenz that the secretion of the 

 mandibular glands is merely sali- 

 vary in function would seem to be 

 the simplest explanation and the 

 most logical one. However, an 

 actual test should certainly be made 

 to determine whether the worker's 

 manipulation of the wax with her mandibles produces any change in 

 it, and to discover whether the queen simply bites her way mechan- 

 ically through the wall of the cell or at the same time softens the wax 

 by a secretion from her mouth. The male in any case has little use 

 for his mandibles, and the glands are so small that they must certainly 

 be functionless. 



A second mandibular gland (fig. 14, 2MdGT) is present in the 

 worker. It consists of a delicate, flattened, racemose mass lying 

 against the internal face of the wall of the fossa of the proboscis, 

 whose duct opens into the mouth cavity at the posterior inner edge 

 of the mandible. This gland was first described by Bordas (1895) as 

 the internal mandibular glared. According to him, it corresponds 

 with a similar gland in the Bombidse (bumblebees) and in the Ves- 

 pidas (yellow jackets) and to the maxillary glands of other Hy- 

 menoptera. Nothing is known of its secretion. 



2MdCl 



Fig. 14. — Internal mandibular gland 

 (2MdGl) of worker, lying against inner 

 wall of postgena iPge) and opening 

 ••(Bet) at inner edge of base of man- 

 dible. 



