142 EVENINGS AT THE MICE08C0PE. 



CHAPTEE YHI. 



INSECTS : STINGS AND OVIPOSITOES. 



Feobably at some period of your life you have been 

 stung by a bee or wasp. I shall take it for granted 

 that you have, and that having tested the potency of 

 these warlike insects' weapons with one sense, you have 

 a curiosity to examine them with another. The micro- 

 scope shall aid your vision to investigate the morbific 

 implement. 



This is the sting of the Honey-bee, which I have 

 but this moment extracted. It consists of a dark brown 

 horny sheath, bulbous at the base, but suddenly dimin- 

 ishing, and then tapering to a fine point. This sheath 

 is split entirely along the inferior edge, and by pressure 

 with a needle I have been enabled to project the two 

 lancets, which commonly lie within the sheath. These 

 are two slender filaments .of the like brown horny sub- 

 stance, of which the centre is tubular, and carries a 

 fluid, in which bubbles are visible. The extremity of 

 each displays a beautiful mechanism, for it is thinned 

 away into two thin blade-edges, of which one remains 

 keen and knife-like, while the opposite edge is cut into 

 several saw-teeth pointing backwards. 



The lancets do not appear to be united with the 

 sheath in any part, but simply to lie in its groove ; their 

 basal portions pass out into the body behind the sheath, 

 where you see a number of muscle-bands crowded 



