6o BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



ment just referred to {hs, Plate I.) is known as the 

 honey sac, and corresponds to the crop of most 

 insects. It is about £in. in depth and ^-in. in dia- 

 meter when full of honey, of which it will hold a full 

 third of an ordinary drop. When nectar is gathered 

 by the foraging bees, it is simply held in store in this 

 cavity, the processes of digestion in no true sense begin- 

 ning until the next chamber (c.s) — the chyle stomach 

 — is reached. The bee having returned to the hive, 

 the cross muscles indicated in hs, Plate I., and LM, 

 TM, Fig. 14, by contraction, press upon the con- 

 tained nectar and drive it back through the oeso- 

 phagus into the cell of the comb, in the manner 

 described at page 18. But, if the mouth of the ox 

 that treads out the corn should not be muzzled, it is 

 clear that the little labourer should have an oppor- 

 tunity of taking, of that it has gathered, for its 

 own support. To permit of this and much more, a 

 rounded body {p, Plate I.), of singular and beautiful 

 structure, about ^th of an inch in diameter, is placed 

 at the bottom of the honey sac. It can be easily 

 seen by the unaided eye, and is of pearly, yet 

 brownish, colour. This apparatus (which may be 

 more easily investigated in the Queen Bombi than the 

 hive bees, on account of its greater size in the former) 

 we shall carefully examine presently, at the moment 

 calling it the "stomach-mouth," a very appropriate 

 name, which Burmeister has given, and which suffi- 

 ciently explains its use, for the bees' food can be 

 taken through it at will, and as required, into the 

 chyle stomach. The latter bends much upon itself 

 in the worker, has a diameter of ^in. and a length 



