74 THE ANATOMY OF THE HONEY BEE. 



posteriorly in the male, while the parts in the two sexes develop 

 later in an absolutely different manner. These arguments, how- 

 ever, do not seem very forcible — in the earliest stages the processes 

 certainly look alike in the two sexes. 



The sting of the bee is situated in the sting cavity at the end of the 

 abdomen, from which it can be quickly»protruded when occasioii de- 

 mands. This sting chamber contains also the reduced and modified 

 sclerites of the eighth, ninth, and tenth abdominal segments. In 

 fact, the sting chamber is formed by an infolding of these three seg- 

 ments into the seventh. It is consequently not a part of the true in- 

 terior of the body or body cavity which contains the viscera, but is 

 simply a sunken and inclosed part of the exterior, in the saiiie sense 

 that the oven of a stove is not a part of the real inside of the stove; 

 Consequently the parts of the sting, though normally hiddeif from 

 view, are really external structures. 



A very gentle pull on the tip of the sting is sufficient to reftiove it 

 from its chamber, but a sting thus extracted brings along with it the 

 ninth and tenth segments, most of the eighth segment, the poison 

 glands, and the terminal part of the alimentary canal. This is due 

 to the fact that the inclosed segments are attached to the surround- 

 ing parts by very delicate membranes. For the same reason they so 

 easily tear from the living bee as the latter hurriedly leaves' its victim 

 after stinging. The worker thus inflicts a temporary wound and 

 pain at the cost of its own life. Undoubtedly, however, nature re- 

 gards the damage to the enemy as of more importance to the bee 

 community as a whole than the loss of one or a dozen of its members. 

 The entire stinging apparatus with a bag of poison attached is thus 

 left sticking in the wound while the muscles, which keep on working 

 automatically, continue to drive the sting in deeper and deeper and 

 at the same time pump in more poison. Such a provision certainly 

 produces much more effective results than would a bee giving a thrust 

 here and another there with its sting and then rapidly flying away 

 to escape from danger. 



The sting itself, when extracted from its chamber, is seen to con- 

 sist of a straight tapering shaft with its tip directed posteriorly and 

 its base swollen into a bulblike enlargement. In superficial appear- 

 ance the shaft appears to be solid, although we shall presently show 

 that it is not, but the bulb is clearly hollow and is open below by 

 a distinct median cleft. Several plates of definite shape and arrange- 

 ment always remain attached to the sting and overlap its base. The 

 entire apparatus, including the base of the large poison sac, is shown 

 somewhat diagrammatically in side view by figure 36. The bulb of 

 the sting (ShB) is connected with the laterai plates by two arms 

 which curve outward and upward from its base. (Only the left side 

 is shown in the figure.) Between these arms the two poison glands 



