STING STRUCTURE. 195 



has been known, when stinging a rival, to so free 

 herself ; and the form of the sheath presents every 

 opportunity, in her case, of securing this desirable 

 object. Its flatness and extreme hardness — for it 

 turns the edge of the finest razor — causes it to act 

 as a drill, so that, after a few turns, a large hole 

 is made, and it is clear, for, when the sheath is 

 freed, the darts offer no impediment. 



It has been remarked, that the decided curvature 

 of the queen's sting {q, F, Plate VII.), in contrast 

 to the straightness of that of the worker (w), is in- 

 tended to give her such an advantage in combat, that, 

 while her sting is applied, her antagonist should be 

 powerless to reach her, so that a queen duel may 

 not be fatal to both ; but the curvature appears to me 

 rather to refer to mating and ovipositing, as the ex- 

 tremity of the sheath can be turned far more com- 

 pletely out of the way through its deviation from the 

 straight line, and the more so because the terminal 

 ventral plate (/) is much truncated, so as to afford 

 a recess into which it can be dropped. It cannot 

 be doubted, that the possession of the sting by 

 the mother-bee of the hive, at the same time that 

 it is generally denied to all but aborted females 

 (neuters), indicates that it has only a relation to 

 some special phase of bee-life, which observation 

 proves to generally transpire before impregnation ; 

 and it is curious that, in the great number of queens 

 I have dissected, a marked majority have had the 

 poison gland atrophied, while the poison sac, although 

 distended, has contained only a yellowish substance 

 almost, if not quite, as solid as new putty, and which, 



