74 
CHAPTER XIII. 
STING STRUCTURE. 
Analogy of Sting to Ovipositor — Sheathe Darts ^ Pouchy Barbs — 
Groove — Compound Levers — La^icets Tubular — Guide Bars 
— Valves — Poison Sac — Alternate Movement of La^icets — 
Lever Muscles — Poison Gla7id — Pump-like Action — Fomnic 
Acid — Oil Gland — Lubrication of Sthig — Ctu'ved Stuig of 
Queen. 
There are few bee-keepers who have not at one time 
or another felt that bees have stings, and that they are 
able with them to cause pain. The sting apparatus is 
provided as a weapon, and has been pointed out by 
Dewitz (30), Vogel (166), and others, to be anatomi- 
cally analogous to the ovipositor of insects, with this 
difference, that whereas the ovipositor is an apparatus 
of the female for depositing eggs, in those insects pro- 
vided with a sting, the female organs are so differenti- 
ated, aborted, or completely suppressed, as to render 
fertilisation impossible. Most writers on the honey 
bee have described the sting, amongst whom may be 
mentioned Burmeister (17), Westwood (169), Duthiers 
(36), and others; but it is to J. D. Hyatt (71) in 
1878, that we are indebted for a complete anatomical 
investigation and description of this organ. He says 
the difference between a sting and an ovipositor is 
more a difference of function than of structure. 
By referring to Fig. 34, it will be seen that the sting 
consists of a dark brown, horny, chitinous piece com- 
monly called the sheath, a (because it was supposed to 
