The Life of the Individual 



113 



glands. Cook ^ and Cowan ^ both adhere to this view. The 

 alimentary canal of the worker (Fig. 60), posterior to the 

 pharynx, narrows to a slender oesophagus {(E) extending 

 through the thorax. In the abdomen, this is enlarged into 

 a thin-walled sac known in the honeybee as the honey- 

 stomach {HS, crop of other insects), since it is used to 

 carry nectar to the hive. At the 

 posterior end this merges with the 

 proventriculus, with heavy muscular 

 walls, which contains a valvular ap- 

 paratus (Fig. 61). Behind this is 

 the stomach or ventriculus (Vent). 

 Schonfeld claims that the brood 

 food, especially that of the queen 

 (royal jelly), is regurgitated from 

 the ventriculus. The experiments 

 of Schonfeld seem to show that 

 the valve in the proventriculus opens 

 and moves anteriorly even to the 

 oesophagus when this is done, but 

 Snodgrass ' claims that this cannot 

 be done without tearing the mus- 

 cles of the proventriculus. Cowan 

 and other authors figure this action 

 in a diagram, but with no evidence 

 from observation. Schonfeld and 

 Cook fed charcoal in honey and 



found this in the brood food which would, in their esti- 

 mation, be impossible if the food is of glandular origin, but 

 they overlooked the fact that the charcoal might get into 

 the brood food from the mouth of the worker. The char- 

 coal could not pass through the walls of the ventriculus in 



Fig. 61. — Longitudinal me- 

 dian section of base of 

 oesophagus. 



1 Cook, A. J., 1904. The beekeeper's guide or manual of the apiary. 

 18th ed., Chicago. 



2 Cowan, T. W., 1904. The honey bee, 2d. ed., London. 



' Snodgrass, R. L., 1910. The anatomy of the honey bee. Tech. 

 Series, 18, Bureau of Entomology, pp. 162. 

 I 



