40 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



The first of these five limbs, the coxa or hip, is 

 short and round, being the joint that articulates with 

 the body (PL VI. fig. 1, a) ; the second, the tro- 

 chanter {b), another small roundish joint ; then the 

 femur (c), a thin elongated division ; the tibia {d), a 

 stout thick limb, which in the hind-leg becomes 

 gradually wider as it recedes from the preceding one ; 

 and lastly, the tarsus or foot (e), which is subdivided 

 into five smaller articulations or segments, the ter- 

 minal one comprising a pair of hooked claws. 



A comparison of the figures re]3resenting the three 

 kinds of Bee (worker, drone, and queen) will serve to 

 show you that the legs vary somewhat in their pro- 

 portions ; but as the posterior or hinder pair, espe- 

 cially in the worker-bee, possess all the interesting 

 features common to the remaining pairs, and some 

 characteristics peculiar to themselves, we shall only 

 bring our lens and microscope to bear upon the re- 

 markably constituted hind-legs. 



The most superficial inspection of one of these 

 members (PI. VI. fig. 1) cannot fail to suggest the 

 idea that it must perform some other function be- 

 sides that of locomotion. First of all, its limbs or 

 joints are of a very curious shape, and unlike those of 

 other insects ; for the fourth limb or tibia {d) becomes 

 very broad as it approaches the fifth, that is, the 

 tarsus, the first joint of which is also very largely deve- 

 loped [e), being of an oblong shape, and covered 

 over its whole surface with regular rows of long stifi' 

 hairs. And then, if you examine the junction of 



