The Bee's Tongue 19 



Bumble-bees are more apt to threaten with their jaws, 

 which are large and powerful, than are honey-bees, the 

 latter being quicker to sting. No doubt a bumble-bee 

 can bestow a very creditable nip with 

 these horny organs, as it will often 

 demonstrate by biting viciously at a 

 pencil-point when disturbed by it. It 

 evidently knows there is no use in 

 wasting good sting power on a pencil- 

 point, so it expresses its feelings with 

 its jaws. 



Any bees caught in a net will bite at the meshes, and 

 this is a very good way to watch the play of tlie jaws, 

 which, as in other insects, work sideways instead of up 

 and down, like those of the higher animals. 



The jaws of the bee are somewhat sickle-shaped, are 

 more or less toothed according to the species of bee, are 

 hard and horny in substance, are fastened at either side of 

 the face by a hinge-joint, and meet or overlap in front 

 when not in use. 



In this chapter, for the sake of clearness, the complex 

 organ commonly known as the tongue will be called the 

 proboscis. 



One approaches it with a fear which even the sting does 

 not inspire, for probably few other organs of its size, in all 

 the world and in all time, have been 

 so much written about and so good- 

 naturedly quarrelled over as has this 

 same little bee's proboscis. 



We will consider, at present, only 

 the proboscis of the worker honey-bee. 



When one first looks for it in a resting bee, it is found 

 folded back under the head and out of the way. 

 When needed, it is let down by a sort of hinge-joint, 



