36 PHTSIOLOGT OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



85. The sting is not, liowever, always lost. When a 

 bee prepares to sting, she usuall}^ curves her abdomen so 

 that she can drive in her sting perpendicularly. To with- 

 draw it, she turns around the wound. This probably rolls 

 up its barbs, so that it comes out more readily. If it had 

 been driven obliquelj' instead of perpendicularly, as some- 

 times happens, she could never have extracted it by turning 

 around the wound. 



86. Sometimes, only the poison-bag and sting are torn 

 off, then she may live quite a while without them, and 

 strange to say, seems to be more angry than ever, and per- 

 sists in making useless attempts to sting. 



87. If a hive is opened during a Winter day, when the 

 weather does not permit the bees to fly, a great number of 

 them raise their abdomens, and thrust out their stings, in a 

 threatening manner. A minute drop of poison can be seen 

 on their points, some of which is occasionally flirted into 

 the eyes of the Apiarist, and causes severe irritation. The 

 odor of this poison is so strong and peculiar, that it is eas- 

 ily recognized. In warm weather it excites the bees, and so 

 provokes their anger, that when one has used its sting in 

 one spot on skin or clothes, others are inclined to thrust 

 theirs in the same place. 



88. The sting, when accompanied by the poisou-sack, 

 may inflict wounds hours, and even days, after it has been 

 removed, or torn, from the body of the bee. But when 

 buried in honey, its poison is best preserved, for it is very 

 volatile, and when exposed to the air, evaporates in a 

 moment. The stings of bees, which, perchance, may be 

 found in broken combs of honey, often retain their power, 

 and we have known of a person's being stung in the mouth, 

 by carelessly eating honey in which bees had been buried 

 by the fall of the combs. 



Mr. J. R. Bledsoe, in the American Bee Journal, for 

 1870, writes : 



