22 Svb-Class of the Honey Bee. 



withdrawing the latter, leaving the wire unmoved. Nothing 

 is more surprising and interesting than this labyrinth of beau- 

 tiful tubes, as seen in dissecting a bee under the microscope. 

 I have frequently detected myself taking long pauses, in mak- 

 ing dissections of the honey-bee, as my attention would be 

 fixed in admiration of this beautiful breathing apparatus. In 

 the bee these tubes e«pand into large lung-like sacks (Fig. 2, 

 /), one on each side of the body. Doubtless some of my 

 readers have associated the quick movements and surprising 

 activity of birds and most mammals with their well-developed 

 lungs, so in such animals as the bees, we see the relation be- 

 tween this intricate system of air tubes — their lungs — and the 

 quick, busy life which has been proverbial of them since the 

 earliest time. The class Insecta also includes the spiders, scor- 

 pions, with their caudal sting so venomous, and mites, all of 

 which have, in lieu of the tubes, lung-like sacks, and the 

 myriapods, or thousand-legged worms — those dreadful creat- 

 ures, whose bite, in case of the tropical centipeds, or flat spe- 

 cies, has a well-earned reputation of being poisonous and deadly. 



SUB-CLASS OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



The honey-bee belongs to the sub-class Hexapoda, or true 

 Insects. The first term is appropriate, as all have in the ima- 

 go, or last stage, six legs. Nor is the second term less appli- 

 cable, as the word insect comes from the Latin, and means to 

 cut in, and in no other articulates does the ring structure ap- 

 pear so marked upon merely a superficial examination. More 

 than this, the true insects when* fully developed have, unlike 

 all other articulates, three well-marked divisions of the body 

 (Fig. 2), namely: the head (Fig. 2, a), which contains the 

 antennae (Fig. 2, d), the horn-like appendages common to all 

 insects ; eyes (Fig. 2, e) and mouth organs ; the thorax (Fig. 

 2, 6), which bears the legs (Fig. 2, g), and wings, when they 

 are present; and lastly, the abdomen (Fig. 2, c) which, though 

 usually memberless, contains the ovipositor, and, when present, 

 the sting. Insects undergo a more striking metamorphosis 

 than do most other animals. When first hatched they are worm- 

 like and called larvae (Fig. 14), which means masked ; afterward 

 they are frequently quiescent, and would hardly be supposed to 

 be animals at all. They are then known as pupse, or, as in 

 case of bees, nymphs (Fig. 15, g). At last there comes forth 



