GENERAL HISTORY OF BEES. 
25 
the habits, in whatever country the genus may he found, 
can thus be as surely affirmed of all its species, from the 
knowledge we have of those at home, as if observation 
had industriously tracked them. Therefore, the techni¬ 
calities of structure once learnt, they become perma¬ 
nently and widely useful. 
The body of the bee consists of a head, thorax, and ab¬ 
domen, which, although to the casual 
observer, seemingly not separated 
from each other, are, upon closer 
inspection, more or less distinctly 
disconnected. The three parts are 
merely united by a very short and 
slight tubular cylinder. This is 
sometimes so much reduced as to 
be only a perforation of the parts 
combined by a ligament, and 
through which aperture a requisite 
channel is formed for the passage « a- 
of the ganglion or nervous chord, m . ul8B 5 insertion of the 
00 _ wings; A,scutellum; i,post- 
whicll extends from one portion of scutellum; k, metathorax; 
the body to the other, giving off l>abdomen ' 
laterally, in its progress from the sensorium in the head 
onwards, the filaments required by the organs of sensa¬ 
tion and motion, as well as all which control the other 
functions of the body of the insect. 
These apertures form also the necessary medium of 
connection between the several viscera, whereby the food 
and other sustaining juices are conveyed from the mouth 
through the oesophagus to the various parts of the body. 
As this work will impinge but very incidentally upon 
the internal organization of the bee, it is unnecessary 
to be more explanatory. All that I shall have to notice 
Fig. 4.—Body of the bee. 
a, head and antennse; b, 
vertex and ocelli; c, genae, 
