- THE HONEY-BEE. 
85 
This organ, beautiful in its construction, and 
admirably adapted to its end, serving to the insect 
the purpose of extracting the juices secreted in the 
nectaries of flowers, consists, principally, of a long 
slender piece, named, by entomologists, the Ligula, 
and erroneously, though, considering its position and 
use, not unnaturally, regarded as the tongue, (Wood- 
Cut, page 34, fig. a.) It is, strictly speaking, formed 
by a prolongation of the lower lip. It is not tubular, 
as has been supposed, but solid throughout, consisting 
of a close succession of cartilaginous rings, above 
forty in number, each of which is fringed with very 
minute hairs, and having also a small tuft of hair 
at its extremity. It is of a flattish form, and about 
the thickness of a human hair; and from its car- 
tilaginous structure, capable of being easily moved 
in all directions, rolling from side to side, and lapping 
or licking up whatever, by the aid of the hairy fringes, 
adheres to it. It is probably, by muscular motion, 
that the fluid which it laps, is propelled into the 
pharynx or canal, situated at its root, and through 
which it is conveyed to the honey-bag. 
From the base of this lapping instrument, arise the 
labial Palpi or Feelers, composed of four articulations, 
( b , b.) of unequal length, the basal one being by much 
the longest, and whose peculiar office is to ascertain 
the nature of the food ; and both these and the ligula 
are protected from injury by the maxillae or lower 
jaws, (c, c.) which envelop them, when in a quiescent 
state, as between two demi-sheaths, and thus pre- 
sent the appearance of a single tube. About the 
middle of the maxillae, are situated the maxillary 
