38 
ANATOMY OF THE BEE 
Prb Gls \[ Pgl 
From Bulletin No. 18, “The Anatomy of the Honeybee,” by Snodgrass, Dept, of Ag., Washington, D. C. 
Fig. 2.—Head of worker with parts of proboscis cut off a short distance from their bases. A, anterior; 
B, posterior; a, clypeal suture: Ant, antenna; b, pit in clypeal suture marking anterior end of internal bar 
of head; c, pit on occipital surface of head, marking posterior end of internal bar; Cd, cardo; Clp, clypeus; 
E. compound eye; For, foramen magnum; Ft, front; Oe, gena; Gls, glossa, or “tongue;” k, ventral groove 
of glossa; Lb, labium; LbPlp, labial palpus; Lm, labrum; Md, mandible; Mt, mentum; Hth, mouth; Mx, 
terminal blade of maxilla; MxPlv, maxillary palpus; O. ocelli; Oc, occiput; Pge, postgena ; Pgl, paraglossa; 
Prb, base of proboscis; PrbFs, fossa of proboscis; Smt, submentum ; St, stipes; ten, small bar of tentorium 
arching over foramen magnum; Vx, vertex. 
sion of the latter elevates the wing, and an 
elevation of the back lowers the wing. But 
the bee flies by a propeller-like action,-or 
figure-8 motion of the wing's. This is pro¬ 
duced by two other sets of much smaller 
muscles acting directly upon the wing bases, 
one before and the other behind the ful¬ 
crum of each. The combined result of all 
these muscles is that the down stroke of 
the wing is accompanied by a forward 
movement and a deflection of the anterior 
edge, while the up stroke reverses this. 
The legs of the bee are too familiar to 
need any extensive description here. Their 
special characters, such as the antennas- 
cleaners on the first and pollen-baskets 
and brushes on the last, are illustrated in 
Fig. 4. The tarsi are each provided with 
a pair of terminal claws ( E , Cla) , by means 
of which the bee clings to rough objects, 
while between the claws is a sticky pad. 
the empodium (Emp ), which is brought 
into play when the bee alights on or walks 
over any smooth surface like glass. 
The hind part of the thorax of bees, 
wasps, and their allies is composed of a 
segment, which, in other insects, is a part 
of the abdomen. It is known as the propo- 
deum. The middle division of the body of 
a bee, wasp, or ant, therefore, is not ex¬ 
actly the equivalent of the thorax of a 
grasshopper, fly, or butterfly. 
The abdomen of the bee has no append¬ 
ages corresponding with those of the head 
or thorax; but it bears two important or¬ 
gans, viz., the wax glands and the sting. 
The wax glands are simply specially devel¬ 
oped cells of the skin on the ventral sur¬ 
faces of the last four visible abdominal 
segments of the worker. There are only six 
segments visible in the apparent abdomen; 
but remembering that the propodeum of 
the thorax is really the first, the wax glands 
occur, therefore, on segments four to seven 
inclusive (Fig. 1, IV-V1I). The wax se¬ 
creted by the glands is discharged thru 
minute pores in the ventral plate of each 
segment, and accumulates in the form of a 
little scale in the pocket above the under¬ 
lapping ventral plate of the segment next 
in front. 
The sting is such a complicated organ 
that it is very difficult to describe it clearly 
in a few words. Fundamentallv it consists 
