DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 
107 
into the honey sac, this acting as a temporary reservoir 
for the collected nectar. From here the food passes 
on, to be digested by the action upon it of the gastric 
juices secreted by the cells in the chyle stomach. 
Or at the will of the bee the nectar may be re- 
gurgitated from the honey sac, and stored in the honey 
cells after conversion into honey. At the bottom of 
the honey sac is situated what Burmeister (17) has 
called the stomach mouth ( 7 ?iagen??iu 7 id)^ h. Although 
some thought its object was to prevent the too rapid 
passing of the food into the chyle stomach, others that 
it was a gizzard, Schonfeld (147, 149) was the first to 
discover the true use of this organ, and subsequently 
Schiemenz (144) gave a full description of it, accom- 
panied by careful illustrations, from whose work our 
drawings (Figs. 47 and 48) are taken. 
The stomach mouth is seen like a small pea, with 
two cross slits on the top, projecting a little on one 
side into the cavity of the honey stomach. It is of 
a brownish colour, and for its observation under the 
microscope Schonfeld recommends that this organ, 
from a freshly killed bee, should be placed in a solu- 
tion of I to per cent of salt in water, when the 
action of the lips may be seen for nearly half an 
hour. The muscular movements are very interesting, 
for the lips open and shut in quick succession, and, 
although involuntary under such circumstances, they 
give a faithful representation of the voluntary action 
of the stomach mouth in the living insect. 
On examining the lips, it will be found that 
they are chitinous on the inside, with a row of 
