BOMBUS TERRESTRIS. 459 



Of the Heat of Wasps. — The heat of wasps is about one degree or 

 one degree and a half above that of the common atmosphere ; for, by 

 having about eighty wasps in a phial with a thermometer, I found, in 

 different trials, different degrees of heat; but, upon an average, the 

 phials with the wasps were commonly about two degrees warmer than 

 the other phial with a thermometer in common air. 



• [Antkidium] 



In August I caught two bees, which I imagined at first to be wasps, 

 although tbey had not all the characters. They were hardly so large, 

 not so long in the abdomen, nor so pointed at the anus. They are 

 spotted with yellow like the wasp, but not so much, and therefore were 

 darker. Their legs are not so long as those of the wasps or bees : they 

 were more rounded and more clumsy. They were females, had the 

 sting, and two ovaria, very similar to those of the humble-bee. Their 

 proboscis was long, more like that of the humble-bee than of any of 

 the others ; they therefore suck honey. The proboscis is composed of 

 five parts, as in the following description from the humble-bee. 



The Humble-bee * \_Bombus terrestris, Latr.] . 



Of the Proboscis, or rather Tongue. — It is composed of five parts ; two 

 outer scales [maxilla}], which I imagine are principally coverings, or a 

 kind of case for the whole when shut. There are two other cases 

 [palpi] for the absorber or true tongue [lingua], which is a long flex- 

 ible feathered stalk, moveable in all directions. I have observed them, 

 when they put it through a hole, to move it in all ways round to catch 

 whatever might be in the way. The salivary glands in the humble-bee 

 are two : they are placed in tbe head, one on each side of the oeso- 

 phagus as it passes along the under side of the head. They are small 

 white bodies ; a white duct passes from the anterior end of each, and 

 goes forward along the sides of the oesophagus near the beginning. 

 They are very small, probably because there is little necessity for such, 

 as the bee sucks honey. The long tongue is feathered on the edges. 

 The oesophagus passes through the thorax and opens into the stomach, 

 which is placed in the upper part of the abdomen ; in which lies the 

 honey. Thence the intestines go out, are disposed somewhat in a spiral 

 convolution, and terminate in a very large bag like the cloaca of a bird, 

 but much larger in proportion 2 . 



Of their Nerves. — The humble-bee has its nerves similar to those com- 



1 [The chief of Hunter's observations on the humble-bee had been arranged and 

 reduced in the MS. volume of ' Natural History.' See vol. i. p. 60.] 



2 [Hunt, Preps. Phys. Series, Nos. 476, 601, 602, 603.] 



