VI 



HONEY-SAC AND WAX-POCKETS 



The bees are chemists, transforming the thin crude 

 nectar of the blossoms into honey, dehcious to the taste 

 and differing from nectar in several particulars. 



When nectar is drawn up into the mouth of the bee it 

 there mingles with a certain digestive fiuid or saliva and in 

 company with this pursues its course through the thread- 

 Hke oesophagus to the honey-sac, which is located in the 

 front blunt end of the abdomen. 



This httle sac has delicate, transparent walls and looks 

 like a bubble when removed unbroken. It contains less 

 than a drop of nectar, which shines through the body-wall 

 when the bee is seen against the light, giving the little 

 creature an airy appearance that is particularly marked in 

 the golden-bodied Italian bee. 



Butler thus describes the honey-sac : — 



" The nectar or liquid honey, the bees gather with their 

 tongues ; whence they let it down into their bottles, which 

 are within them, hke unto bladders ; each of them will 

 hold but a drop at once. 



" You may see their little bellies strut withal." 



Nectar contains cane sugar ; honey, grape sugar, the 

 change being effected by the saliva, or it may be partly by 

 that and partly by digestive fluids in the honey-sac. 



Nectar is neutral while honey has an acid reaction, the 

 formic acid, present in honey, probably being secreted by 



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