22 ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMON BEE. 



to ask, what now becomes of the highly vaunted anatomical 

 researches of Mademoiselle Jurine, whose opinion on the 

 sexual character of the common bee is so warmly espoused 

 by the editor of the Insect Architecture, published by the 

 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge ? Is it pos- 

 sible, we may ask, that the ovaries of Huber could have 

 escaped the investigation of M. Epignes, if any such ovaries 

 had been actually in existence ? An organ of that kind, so 

 necessary and indispensable to a female insect, must, at 

 once, have been so apparent, as to have excited the imme- 

 diate notice of the anatomist; no such organ, however, 

 having presented itself to the observation of M. Epignes, he 

 considers himself authorized to deny its existence in toto. 

 Thus, it is most curious to remark, that nearly in the middle 

 of the nineteenth century, notwithstanding the most minute 

 and extended researches by men of the profoundest talent 

 of all ages and of all countries, the sexual character of the 

 common bee remains still a disputed point, and its real 

 nature, but imperfectly understood. 



In the organization of the common bees, there are three 

 essential characters, which demand our notice. The first is 

 the head, the second, the middle of the body, and the third, 

 the belly or the abdomen. 



In the head are two sets of jaws, which open and close 

 laterally, and it is by this organ that it is enabled to collect 

 the farina of the plants, to form it into wax, to construct the 

 combs with it — and to carry to or from the hive whatever is 

 necessary or detrimental to it. On a further examination of 

 the head, a proboscis is perceptible, highly flexible, which 

 the insect puts forth and draws in at pleasure, and it is by 

 means of this organ that the. bees collect the honey from the 

 flowers, and imbibe their own nourishment. 



In the middle of the body are the breast and the two 

 stomachs, the common bee having always two, one as the 

 receptacle of the honey, and the other in which the wax is 



