82 



THE ANATOMY OF THE HONEY BEE. 



be squeezed gently between a pair of forceps the poison will be seen 

 to emerge in the same way. In fact, it can be actually squirted out 

 by a sudden compression when the bulb is well filled with poison, but 

 there is never any evidence of its escape through the sides. 



An examination of the end of each lancet does reveal a number of 

 oblique pores (fig. 40 E, oo) which have been figured by other writ- 

 ers, and they certainly open on the bases of the barbs as described, 

 but their inner ends apparently communicate wj^th the body cavity 

 (be) of the lancet instead of passing clear through the lancet and 

 opening into the poison canal. Furthermore, a paired series of 

 exactly similar pores extends the entire length of the shaft of the 

 sheath (fig. 40 F, oo), opening on its dorsal surface from the body 

 cavity (ic). No one could possibly claim that the poison emerges 



Fig. 41. — Tip of abdomen of worker with left side removed, showing right halves of sev- 

 enth tergum (VIIT) and sternum (VIIS), containing the sting chamber (fcfc) cut open 

 along the line bio, exposing the eighth tergum (VII IT), the rudimentary tenth segment 

 (Z) carrying the anus (An), and the sting and accessory parts shown by fig. 36. 



also through these pores, which, very curiously, do not appear to 

 have been described before, although they are even more conspicuous 

 as well as more numerous than those of the lancets. The writer has 

 not been successful in preparing histological sections of the sting 

 which show these pores, but they probably constitute the ducts of 

 some kind of subcuticular glands. 



A cross-section through the sting a short distance in front of its 

 tip shows that the lancets are here separated by a narrow cleft (fig. 

 40 A), while elsewhere (B and C) they are contiguous. This cleft 

 between the ends of the lancets forms the exit for the poison from the 

 channel. 



The sting of the queen is much longer than that of the worker 

 and is more solidly attached within the sting chamber. Its shaft is 



