92 Worker Larva. 



a bee, dead for hours, to sting. A wasp, dead more than a 

 day, with the abdomen cut off, made a painful thrust, and 

 stings extracted for several minutes could still bring tears by 

 their entering the flesh. In stinging, the awl first pierces, 

 then the lancets follow. As the lancets push in, the valves 

 close the central tube, when the poison is driven through the 

 lancets themselves and comes out by the openirigs near the 

 barbs (Fig. 28, o, o). The drop of poison which we see on 

 the sting when the bee is slightly irritated, as by jarring the 

 hive on a cold day, is pushed through the central opening 

 by the muscular contraction of the sack attendant Upon the 

 elevation of the abdomen and extrusion of the sting. The 

 young microscopist will find it difficult to see the barbs, as it 

 is not easy to turn the lancets so that they will show. Pa- 

 tience and persistence, however, will bring success. 



The honey-stomach, or crop, in the workers (Fig. 11, o) is 

 well developed, though no larger than that of drones. 

 Whether it is more complex in structure or not, I cannot state. 



The workers hatch from impregnated eggs, which can only 

 , come from a queen that has met a drone, and are always laid in 

 the small, horizontal cells (Fig. 31, c). These eggs are in no wise 

 different, so far as we can see, from those which are laid in the 

 drone or queen-cells. All are cylindrical and slightly curved 

 (Fig. 29, a, b) and are fastened by one end to the bottom of 

 the cell, and a little to one side of the centre. As in other 

 animals, the eggs from different queens vary preceptibly in 

 size. As already shown, these are voluntarily fertilized by 

 the queen as she extrudes them, preparatory to fastening them 

 in the cells. These eggs, though small — ^one-sixteenth of an 

 inch long, may be easily seen by holding the comb so that 

 the light will shine into the cells. With experience they are 

 detected alnlost at once, but I have often found it quite dif- 

 ficult to make the novice see them, though very plainly visible 

 to my experienced eye. 



The egg hatches in three days. The larva (Fig. 29, d, e, /), 

 incorrectly called grub, maggot — and even caterpillar, by 

 Hunter — is white, footless, and lies coiled up in the cell tiU 

 near maturity. It is fed a whitish fluid, though this seems to 

 be given grudgingly, as the larva never seems to have more 

 than it wishes to eat, so it is fed quite frequently by the 

 mature workers. It would seem that the workers fear an 



