196 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



of course, could not have supplied anything to a 

 wound the sting might have produced. Coupling 

 this with the absence of a special ganglion, such as 

 we find in the worker — for the last ganglion is mainly 

 required for the reproductive organs — the very secon- 

 dary importance of the sting to the queen can hardly 

 be questioned. 



The development of the sting during the larval 

 and chrysalis conditions is extremely interesting. Its 

 first indication consists in line prominences, or warts, 

 found in pittings on the ventral side of the penulti- 

 mate and anti-penultimate segments of the maturing 

 larva [b, c, A, Fig. 47) ; but these are quite invisible 

 until, by hardening with alcohol, they make their 

 appearance beneath the external skin. These in- 

 crease, and gradually assume the mature form during 

 the chrysalis condition, at the same time that the 

 segments bearing them diminish, especially on the 

 ventral side (6, c, B) ; so that, although appearing at 

 first on two distinct segments, the parts get fused 

 together, and the last segment but three {d, A) of 

 the larva becomes the last of all in the bee [d, C), 

 the intervening ones being introverted. The residue 

 of the disappearing segments is, at the same time, 

 modelled into the various parts that are accessory 

 to the complex organ, which, from the very manner 

 of its formation, lies within the body, like a sock 

 which has the foot turned inside the leg. 



However much we may regard the possession of a 

 sting by a domesticated creature as undesirable, there 

 is no room to doubt its necessity to the bee in a 

 state of nature, where, in its hollow tree, or recess 



