THORAX AND LEGS. 121 



better. Roll up some wet writing-paper into the 

 shape of a tube, about ^in. in diameter, lift out the 

 bees with forceps, and drop them, one by one, into 

 it, so that they are arranged end to end. Fill up 

 the tube with the wax, and allow it to cool. The 

 paper being removed, the bees may be cut, in any 

 direction, into very thin slices, for examination. 



The thoracic plates have their remarkable external 

 modelling completely concealed by the down which 

 thickly covers them above, and the long, webbed hairs 

 clothing them below. A small patch of these is seen 

 at I, Fig. 24, holding sundry pollen grains between 

 their meshes, the latter accomplishing their purpose by 

 inevitably entrapping the granules furnished by the 

 anthers when visits are paid to blossoms. The 

 queen, as this would lead us to suppose, is relatively 

 bare beneath, but the drone is enveloped in a strong, 

 almost spiny, pubescence, giving him great clinging 

 power, of which the utility is apparent. A little 

 device will make the bees our assistants in studying 

 their thoracic and leg structure. Take a thin string, 

 about a foot long, and at each end fix a dead bee, 

 by tying round the neck. Drop the suspended 

 " culprits " between the frames of a stock, so that 

 the middle of the string rests like a saddle on the 

 top bar. In a couple of days, every hair will be 

 cleaned from the "gibbets," and their bodies polished 

 like those of beetles, so that the attachment of the 

 wings, the spiracles, the lines dividing pro-, meso-, and 

 meta-thorax, the actual form of the leg joints, and 

 the character of their articulations, with many other 

 interesting points, will be clearly visible. All adult 



