56 
TIIK HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
so entirely with eggs that some of the cells contained 
three or four each. Such workers have, in rare instances, 
been tolerated in hives containing a fertile, healthy 
queen. 
The worker is much smaller than either the queen or 
the drone. She is furnished with a tongue, or proboscis, 
so exceedingly curious and complicated, that a separate 
volume would hardly suffice to describe its structure and 
uses (PI. XVI., Fig. 51). With this organ she obtains the 
honey from the blossoms, and conveys it to her honey-bag. 
This receptacle (PI. XVII., Fig. 54, A), is not larger than 
a very small pea, and so perfectly transparent as to appear, 
when filled, of the same color with its contents; it is 
properly the first stomach, and is surrounded by muscles 
which enable the bee to compress it, and empty its con¬ 
tents through her proboscis into the cells. 
The hinder legs of the worker are furnished with a 
spoon-shaped hollow, or basket, to receive the pollen 
which she gathers from the flowers. 
Every worker is armed with a formidable sting, and 
when provoked makes instant and effectual use of her 
natural weapon. When subjected to a microscopic exam¬ 
ination (PI. XVII., Fig. 53), it exhibits a very intricate 
mechanism. “ It is moved by muscles* which, though 
invisible to the eye, are yet strong enough to force the 
sting, to the depth of one-twelfth of an inch, through the 
thick skin of a man’s hand. At its root are situated two 
glands by which the poison is secreted ; these glauds 
uniting in one duct, eject the venomous liquid along tho 
groove formed by the junction of the two piercers. 
There are four barbs on the outside of each piercer ; when 
the insect is prepared to sting, one of these piercers, 
having its point a little longer than the other, first darts 
* Bevfin. 
