94 



THE ANATOMY OF THE HONEY BEE. 



Vent 



are based chiefly on the work of Planta, published in 1888. Cheshire 

 (1886) states that the stomachs of queens contain a substance which 

 is " microscopically indistinguishable from the so-called royal jelly," 

 scarcely a pollen grain being discoverable in it. If this is so, it would 

 seem to prove that the queen is fed this substance by the worker, for 

 the stomach of the latter is invariably filled with a dark-brown slime 



containing a vary- 

 /-c- Ul --rj ing amount of pol- 



len and in no way 

 resembling royal 

 jelly. Cheshire 

 further says that 

 before impregna- 

 tion the stomachs 

 of the queens al- 

 ways contain pol- 

 len, the royal jelly 

 being found in 

 them two or three 

 days after impreg- 

 nation, when all 

 traces of pollen 

 have disappeared. 



The narrow 

 oesophagus (fig. 42, 

 (E)isa. simple tube 

 with a thick chiti- 

 nous lining and 

 muscular walls. 

 The epithelium (fig. 

 45) is very rudi- 

 mentary, its cell 

 boundaries being 

 lost and its nuclei 

 (Nu) appearing as 

 if imbedded in the 

 lower layers of the 

 thick transparent 

 intima (Int). The muscles are disposed in an outer layer*' of trans- 

 verse fibers {TMcl) and an inner layer of longitudinal ones (LMcl). 

 The honey stomach (fig. 42, HS) is simply an enlargement of the 

 posterior end of the oesophagus lying within the anterior part of 

 the abdominal cavity. It is best developed in the worker (fig. 44 A) , 

 but is present also in the queen (B) and in the drone (D). The 

 organ should perhaps have been named the nectar stomach, for its 



Fig. 44. — A, honey stomach (HS) of worker with posterior end 

 of oesophagus (CE), proventriculus (Pvent), and anterior 

 end of ventriculus (Vent) ; B, same of queen; C, honey- 

 stomach {.HS) of worker mostly cut away exposing the 

 stomach-mouth (mi) of proventriculus (Pvent) leading into 

 ventriculus (Vent) ; D, honey stomach of drone. 



