MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 11 



CHAPTEE II. 



THE BEE'S PLACE IK THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 

 THE BEANCH OF THE HONBT-BEE. 



The Houey-bee belongs to the great branch of animals known as Articulates, 

 a very appropriate name given by the great French naturalist Ouvier, as it 

 refers to the ring or jointed structure which characterizes all the animals of the 

 -group, whether worms, Crustacea — which includes the lobsters, sow-bugs, and 

 barnacles — or true insects. These rings form a skeleton, which, unhke that 

 of the higher vertebrate branch, is external, and this serves to protect the softer 

 inner parts, as well as to give strength and solidity. An examination of a bee 

 will quickly reveal these rings, while in our beautiful Italians coloration makes 

 them show even more plainly. 



CLASS OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



Our subject belongs to the class Insecta, which is characterized by breathing 

 air usually through a very complicated system of air tubes. These tubes are 

 very peculiar in their structure, as they are formed of a spiral thread, and thus 

 resemble a hollow cylinder which might be formed by closely winding a fine 

 wire about the finger, and then withdrawing the latter, the wire remaining 

 unmoved. These tubes are constantly branching and are almost infinite in 

 number. Nothing is more surprising and interesting than this labyrinth of 

 beautiful tubes as seen in dissecting a bee under the microscope. I have fre- 

 quently detected myself taking long pauses in making dissections of the honey- 

 bee, as my attention would be fixed in admiration of this beautiful breathing 

 apparatus. Doubtless all of my readers have associated the, quick movements 

 and surprising activity of birds and most mammals with their well developed 

 lungs. So, too, in such animals as the bee we see the relation between this 

 intricate system of air-tubes — their lungs — and the quick, busy life which has 

 been proverbial of them since the earliest times. 



OEDER OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



Our bees belong to the order Hexapods, or true Insects. The first term is 

 appropriate, as all have in the imago or last stage, six legs. Nor is the second 

 term less applicable, as the word insect comes from the Latin and means to cut 

 in, and in no other articulates does the ring structure appear so marked upon 

 merely a superficial examination. More than this, the true insects when fully 

 developed, have unlike all other articulates, three well marked divisions of the 

 body, namely : the head, which contains the antennae — the horn-like appendages 

 common to all insects ; eyes and mouth organs ; the thorax, which bears the 

 legs, and wings, when they are present; and lastly, the abdomen, which, 

 though usually memberless, contains the ovipositor, and when present, the sting. 

 Insects, too, undergo a more striking metamorphosis than do most animals. 

 When first hatched they are worm-like and called larvse, which means masked ; 

 afterward they are frequently quiescent, and would hardly be supposed to be 

 animals at all. They are then known as pupse. At last there comes forth the 

 imago with compound eyes, antennae, and wings. In some insects the transfer- 



