BEE MANUAL. 59 



hind legs ; it often makes use of its mandibles to free the pollen before 

 moistening it with honey. In the latter case, which I have observed 

 in Plantago lanceolata . . . the bee, hovering over the flower, 

 ejects a little honey upon the anthers from its suction-tube which is 

 fully extended, but completely sheaths the tongue. . . . Since 

 hive-bees and humble-bees on entomophilous flowers suck honey with 

 outstretched proboscis, and collect pollen with it folded up, and on 

 anemophilous flowers collect pollen only, it follows that they can 

 never suck honey and gather pollen simultaneously ; they must always 

 do first one and then the other, and since the pollen has to be moistened 

 with honey, the act of sucking must always be first." 



THE HONEY SAC. 



This is merely a widening of the oesophagus, forming a first 

 stomach, in the anterior part of the abdomen, a sort of ante- 

 chamber to the true stomach, which is very different in shape, 

 and which is followed by the intestines leading to the anus, or 

 vent. Everything passing from the mouth to the stomach 

 must go through the honey sac, but the bee has the power of 

 retaining the nectar in this sac, and afterwards disgorging it 

 through the mouth, without letting it enter the true stomach 

 at all. Connected with the oesophagus, in front of the honey 

 sac, there are important glands in the head and in the front 

 part of the abdomen, which secrete the so-called salivary juice, 

 which, as Professor Cook states, " aids in kneading wax, etc., 

 as already described. It also probably aids in modifying the 

 sugar while the nectar is in the bee's stomach." This would 

 account partly for the difference observable between honey and 

 other merely saccharine matter. 



THE STING. 



The sting of the worker bee is a very complicated organ, as 

 will be seen by a study of the following engraving, taken from. 

 Boot's " A B C of Bee Culture." 



In the general view of the sting, I, is the double gland which 

 secretes the poison ; A, the cylindrical reservoir in which the 

 poison is collected from the glands, and from which it is trans- 

 mitted through hollows in the spears or lancets to the wound ; 

 B, the two barbed lancets ; and D, the third spear or awl, 

 usually styled the sheath, in which the other two partly slide 

 when at work. In the cross section (greatly enlarged) of the 



