96 MANUAL OP THE APIARY. 



Steel instruments, under a high magnifier, look rough and 

 unfinished, while the parts of the sting show no such inequali- 

 ties. One of these spears (Fig. 25, a) is canaliculate — that 

 is, it forms an imperfect tube — and in this canal work the 

 other two (Fig. 25, b, h), which fill the vacant space, and 

 thus the three make a complete tube, and through this 

 tube, which connects with the poison "sack, passes the poison. 

 The slender spears which work in the tube are marvelously 

 sharp, and project beyond it when used, and are worked 

 alternately by small but powerful muscles (Fig. 25 , d), so they 

 may pass through buckskin, or even the thick scarf-skin of 

 the hand. These are also barbed at the end with teeth, seven 

 of which are prominent, which extend out and back like the 

 barb of a fish-hook. Hence the sting cannot be withdrawn, if it 

 penetrates any firm substance, and so when used, it is drawn 

 from the bee, and carries with it a portion of the alimentary 

 canal, thus costing the poor bee its life. Darwin suggests 

 that bees and wasps were developed from the saw-flies, and 

 that the barbs on the sting are the old-time saws, transformed 

 into the spear-like barbs. He does not explain why these are 

 so much shorter and more obscure in the queen, and in other 

 bees and wasps. The honey-stomach or crop in the workers 

 (Fig. 9, o) is well developed, though no larger than those in 

 the drones. Whether it is more complex in structure, I do 

 not know. 



The workers hatch from an impregnated egg, which can 

 only come from a queen that has met a drone, and is always 

 laid in the small, horizontal cell. These eggs are in no wise 

 different, so far as we can see, from those which are laid in the 

 drone or queen-cells. All are cylindrical and slightly curved 

 (Fig. 26, b, c) and are fastened by one end to the bottom of 

 the cell, and a little to one side of the centre. As already 

 shown, these are voluntarily fertilized by the queen as she ex- 

 trudes them, preparatory to fastening them in the cells. These 

 eggs, though so small — one-sixteenth of an inch long — may be 

 easily seen by holding the comb so that the light will shine 

 into the cells. With experience, they are detected almost at 

 once, but I have often found it quite difficult to make the 

 novice see them, though very plainly visible to my experienced 

 eye. 



