Hi 



EVKNINGS AT TIIK MTCKOSOOrE. 



covered all over, but especially towards the neck, with 

 small glands set transversely. It is rounded behind, 



where it is entered by a 

 very long and slender mem- 

 branous tube, which, after 

 many turns and windings, 

 gradually thickening and 

 becoming more evidently 

 glandular, terminates in a 

 blind end. 



This is the apparatus for 

 preparing and ejecting a 

 powerful poison. The glan- 

 dular end of the slender 

 tube is the secreting organ : 

 here the venom is pre- 

 pared ; the remainder of 

 the tube is a duct for con- 

 veying it to the bag, a re- 

 servoir in which it is stored 

 for the moment of use. By 

 means of the neck it is 

 thrown into the groove at 

 the moment the sting is 

 projected, the same mus- 

 cles, probably, that dart 

 forward the weapon com- 

 pressing the poison-bag and 

 ca,using it to pour forth its 

 contents into the groove, 

 whence it passes on be- 

 tween the two spears into the wound which they have 

 made. 



STING OF BEE. 



a. Tip of Lancet, more enlarged. 



