CHAPTER III. 



GENERAL STRUCTURE. 



External Skeleton — Chitine — Hairs and their Uses — 



Breathing Apparatus : Spiracles and Trachese ; 



Air Sacs — Circulating System — Dorsal Vessel — 



Pericardial Cavity — Blood of Bee — Peritracheal 



Circulation — Muscular Fibres, and Methods of 



Movement — Muscles of the Jaw — The Minute in 



Nature. 



OUR bee is now before us, for we have witnessed 



the laying of the egg, the growth of the larva, the 



development of the chrysalis, and the initial life of 



the imago, and, as we pursue our study of the 



intricacies now awaiting us, we shall find it more 



convenient to treat under separate heads the nerve 



system, the digestive apparatus and glandular systems, 



the external organs of sense and locomotion, with 



those special parts that distinguish queens, workers, 



and drones ; but, at the same time, it will do us good 



service first so to examine the general structure that 



we shall have a grasp, as a whole, of the wondrous 



mechanism we desire to understand. Let us begin 



with the external framework, premising that bees, 



in common with all insects, have formed on every 



