112 
DIGESTIVE A PEAR A TUS. 
fully describes in his memoir. They have also been 
described by Swammerdam., Burmeister, Dufour {boii- 
tons c/iarnus), Newport (who calls them ^glandular 
protuberances ’), Leuckart, Siebold, and others. 
These glands project on the inner side, and are 
continuous with the intima. They are built up of 
layers of columnar epithelial cells, which on . the 
surface present an irregular hexagonal appearance, 
and taper towards their other extremities. They are 
supplied with nerves, tracheae, and muscles. 
From the colon what remains of the undigested 
food is expelled by the anal opening (frontispiece, o). 
For this purpose strong muscles exist, by which the 
colon is compressed and the excreta ejected. 
The quantity of the excreta voided, usually of a 
dark brown colour, is regulated by the nature of the 
food ; bad honey, an improper substitute for honey 
(such as glucose) producing a larger amount, whilst 
good honey and good syrup produce less, a larger pro- 
portion of it being digested and absorbed. It is, 
therefore, important that bees should have good food, 
as in a healthy condition workers never void their 
fasces in the hive, but on the wing. In the winter it is 
retained until voided on their first flight. 
The faeces of the drone are also ejected on the 
wing, and are of a greyish colour, from the nature of his 
food. Those of the queen, in consequence of her only 
feeding, as we shall see, on honey and chyle food, are 
liquid and of a pale yellow colour. We have seen them 
ejected by the queen in the hive, and, according to 
Vogel (i66), they are sucked up by the workers. 
