98 



The Honey-Makers 



curved rods, moving sting and sheath up and down inde- 

 pendently of each other. 



In the illustration on page 97 the sting is entirely with- 

 drawn ; in the following one it is forced out to its full extent, 



and it will be noticed that the left-hand lance is a little the 

 lower. 



The foregoing illustrations are taken from a sting, the 

 upper parts of which have been flattened out somewhat, in 

 order to get an unobstructed view of the working appara- 

 tus ; in nature the two sides of the sting are folded towards 

 each other so that the plates Z, Z, for instance, are more 

 nearly parallel instead of, as in the picture, standing on the 

 same plane. 



A side view of the sting in its natural position in the bee 

 makes the working of the mechanism clearer. 



Bee-poison expresses the concentrated anger of the bee, 

 and to that is generally added more or less anger of our 

 own, which probably assists the action of the other. 



