22 Sub-Glass of the Honey Bee. 



withdrawing the latter, leaving the wire unmoved. Nothing 

 is more surprising and interesting than this labyrinth of beau- 

 tiful tubes, as seen in dissecting a bee under the microscope. 

 I have frequently detected myself taking long pauses, in mak- 

 ing dissections of the honey-bee, as my attention would be 

 fixed in admiration of this beautiful breathing apparatus. .In 

 the bee these tubes expand into large lung-like sacks (Fig. 2, 

 /;, one on each side of the body. Doubtless some of my 

 readers have associated the quick movements and surprising 

 activity of birds and most mammals with their well-developed 

 lungs, so in such animals as the bees, we see the relation be- 

 tween this intricate system of air tubes — their lungs—and the 

 quick, busy life which has been proverbial of them since the 

 earliest time. The class Insecta a lso includes the spiders, scor- 

 pions, with theircaudal sting so venomous, and mites, all of 

 which have, in lieu of the tubes, lung-like sacks, and the 

 myriapods, or thousand-legged worms — those dreadful creat- 

 ures, whose bite, in case of the tropical centipeds, or flat spe- 

 cies, has a well-earned reputation of being poisonous and deadly. 



SUB-CLASS OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



The honey-bee belongs to the sub-class Hexanoda, or true 

 Insects. The first term is appropriate, as all have in the ima- 

 go, or last stage, six legs. Nor is the second term less appli- 

 cable, as the word insect comes from the Latin, and means to 

 cut in, and in no other articulates does the ring structure ap- 

 pear 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 

 (Fig. 2), namely: the head (Fig. 2, a), which contains the 

 antennae (Fig. 2, d), the horn-like appendages common to all 

 insects ; eyes (Fig. 2, e) and mouth organs ; the thorax (Fig. 

 2, 6), which bears the legs (Fig. 2, g~), and wings, when they 

 are present ; and lastly, the abdomen (Fig. 2, c) which, though 

 usually memberless, contains the ovipositor, and, when present, 

 the sting. Insects undergo a more striking metamorphosis 

 than do most other animals. When first hatched they are wo rm- 

 like and called lar vae (Fig. 14\ which me ans masked ; afterward 

 they are frequently quiescent, and wouTcTharaTyl)e supposed to 

 be animals at all. They are then know n as pupse, or, as in 

 case of bees, nymphs (Fig. 15, g). St last there comesTorE 



