44 THE APIARY. 



of blood, is produced in the intestines, nourishes the 

 body, receives the oxygen from the air-vessels, and gene- 

 rates that animal warmth so necessary for the insect's 

 well-being. Bees have the power of counteracting super- 

 abundant heat by perspiration. Not unfrequently, on a 

 hot summer's morning, a good deal of moisture may be 

 noticed at the entrance of a crowded hive, which the 

 inmates have been enabled to throw off. This is a healthy 

 sign, because a sign of great numerical strength. 



The abdomen, attached to the posterior part of the 

 thorax by a slender ligament, has, for an outer covering, 

 six folds or scales of unequal breadth, overlapping each 

 other, and contains the honey-bag, or first stomach, the 

 ventricle, or true stomach (Plate II., figs, i and 2/"), with 

 other intestines, to be hereafter referred to. 



The honey-bag (Plate II., figs, i and 2, d) is an 

 enlargement of the gullet, and, although called the first 

 stomach, no digestion takes place here. In shape it is 

 like a taper oil flask ; when full, it is about the size of a 

 small pea, and so transparent that the colour of the honey 

 may be seen through it. This sac, as it is sometimes 

 called, is susceptible of contraction, and so organized as 

 to enable the bee to disgorge a part of its contents at 

 pleasure, to fill the honey-cells of the hive. It has formed 

 a subject of some controversy whether any or what 

 change takes place in the nectar of flowers whilst in the 

 bee's stomach, 



A short passage (Plate II., flgs. i and 2,/) leads to the 



