20 The Branch of the Honey Bee. 



which gives us food, is related to the dreaded tape-worm, with 

 its hundreds of joints, which, mayhaps, robs us of the same 

 food after we have eaten it, and to the terrible pork-worm, or 

 trichina, which may consume the very muscles we have de- 

 veloped in caring for our pets of the apiary. 



In classifying animals, the zoologist has regard not only to 

 the morphology — the gross anatomy — but also to the embryol- 

 ogy, or style of development before birth or hatching. On 

 both embryological and morphological grounds, Huxley and 

 other recent authors are more than warranted in separating 

 the Vermes, or worms, from the Articulates of Cuvier, as a 

 separate branch. The remaining classes are now included in 

 the branch Arthropoda. This term, which means jointed feet, 

 is most appropriate, as all of the Insecta and Crustacea have 

 jointed feet while the worms are without such members. 



The body-rings of these animals form a skeleton, firm, as in 

 the bee and lobster, or more or less soft, as in most larvse. 

 This skeleton, unlike that of Vertebrates or back-bone ani- 

 mals, to which man belongs, is outside, and thus serves to pro- 

 tect the inner, softer, parts, as well as to give them attach- 

 ment, and to give strength and solidity to the animal. 



This ring-structure, so beautifully marked in our golden- 

 banded Italians, usually makes it easy to separate, at sight, 

 animals of this branch from the Vertebrates, with their usually 

 bony skeleton ; from the less active Molluscan branch, with 

 their soft, sack-like bodies, familiar to us in the snail, the clam, 

 the oyster, and the wonderful cuttle-fish — the devil-fish of 

 Victor Hugo — with its long, clammy arms, strange ink-bag, 

 and often prodigious size ; from the Radiate branch, with its 

 elegant star-fish, delicate but gaudy jelly-fish, and coral animals, 

 the tiny architects of islands and even continents ; and from 

 the lowest, simplest, Protozoan branch, which includes animals 

 often so minute that we owe our very knowledge of them to 

 the microscope, and so simple that they have been regarded as 

 the bond which unites plants with animals. 



THE CLASS OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



Our subject belongs to the class Insecta , which is mainly 

 characterized by breathing air usually through a very compli- 

 cated system of air tubes. These tubes (Fig. 1), which are 

 constantly branching, and almost infinite in number, are very 



