BRITISH HIVE- BEE. 295 



important to notice that the habit of laying up stores of 

 food material for the winter enables the colony, and not 

 merely an individual, to survive, and must thus have greatly 

 assisted in the evolution of sociality. 



External features. — The body shows the usual division into head, 

 thorax, and abdomen, and varies considerably in the three different 

 types, being smallest in the workers. It is entirely covered with hairs, 

 some of which are sensitive, while others are used in pollen gathering, etc. 



The head bears antennae, which are composed of a long basal and 

 numerous smaller joints. They are marvellously sensitive, serving to 

 communicate impressions, and also containing organs of special sense. 

 A pair of compound eyes, largest in the drones, and three median 

 ocelli, are also present in the head region. Of the other appendages of 

 the head, the mandibles are in the workers very powerful, and used for 

 many purposes connected with comb-building. In the first maxillae 

 the maxillary palps are aborted, and the appendage consists of an 

 undivided lamina at each side, borne on a basal piece consisting as 

 usual of stipes and cardo. The second pair of maxilUe form as usual the 

 labium or so-called lower lip, and aie much modified. The united basal 

 joints form the mentum and sub-mentum. From the mentum at either 

 side springs the long labial palp, which represents the outer fork of the 

 typical appendage. The endopodite at each side is divided into two 

 parts, but the inner two (lacinia;) are united, much elongated, and 

 form the tongue or ligula of the bee. The outer halves form the 

 paraglossre, which are closely apposed to the base of the ligula. It 

 is the great elongation of the ligula and labial palps which especially 

 fits the bee for nectar-gathering. The three structures can be closely 

 apposed to one another, and then form an air-tight tube, up which, by 

 the action of the stomach, nectar is sucked. In many of our British 

 bees the ligula is much shorter, and more or less trowel-like in shape, 

 and is then used largely, as in wasps, in the operation of plastering the 

 nest. In such cases the bee can only suck those flowers in which the 

 nectar is superficial. The hive-bees and humble-bees, on the other 

 hand, are specially modified to enable them to extract nectar from 

 tubular flowers. When not in use the elongated mouth-parts are folded 

 back upon themselves, not coiled as in butterflies and moths, where 

 there is even greater elongation. 



In the queen and in the drone the mouth-parts are shorter, and are 

 not used in honey gathering. 



The thoracic appendages consist as usual of three pairs of legs, which 

 have the usual parts. On the first leg, at the junction of the tibia and 

 the first tarsal joint, there is a complicated mechanism which is em- 

 ployed in cleaning the antenna ; this is present in all three forms, and 

 varies with the size of the antennoe. In the workers the third leg is 

 remarkably modified for pollen gathering purposes. The first tarsal 

 joint bears regular rows of stiff straight hairs on which the pollen grains 

 are collected ; they are borne to the hive in the pollen basket, placed 

 at the back of the tibia, and furnished with numerous hairs. In queen 

 and drone, these special arrangements of hairs are absent. 



