Manual of the apiary

by Albert John Cook

Fig. 25.

a—Tube. b b—Barbed spears drawn out of tube and turned back, c—Poison sack. d—Muscles.

The workers, too, possess an organ of defense ([Fig, 25]), which they are quick to use if occasion requires. This is not curved as in the queen, but straight. The gland which secretes the poison is double, and the sack ([Fig, 25, c]), in which it is stored, is as large as a flax-seed. The sting proper, is a triple organ, consisting of three sharp spears, very smooth and of exquisite polish. The most highly-wrought steel instruments, under a high magnifier, look rough and unfinished, while the parts of the sting show no such inequalities. One of these spears ([Fig, 25, a]) is canaliculate—that is, it forms an imperfect tube—and in this canal work the other two ([Fig. 25, b, b]), which fill the vacant space, and thus the three make a complete tube, and through this tube, which connects with the poison sack, passes the poison. The slender spears which work in the tube are marvelously sharp, and project beyond it when used, and are worked alternately by small but powerful muscles ([Fig. 25, d]), so they may pass through buckskin, or even the thick scarf-skin of the hand. These are also barbed at the end with teeth, seven of which are prominent, which extend out and back like the barb of a fish-hook. Hence the sting cannot be withdrawn, if it penetrates any firm substance, and so when used, it is drawn from the bee, and carries with it a portion of the alimentary canal, thus costing the poor bee its life. Darwin suggests that bees and wasps were developed from the saw-flies, and that the barbs on the sting are the old-time saws, transformed into the spear-like barbs. He does not explain why these are so much shorter and more obscure in the queen, and in other bees and wasps. The honey-stomach or crop in the workers ([Fig, 9, o]) is well developed, though no larger than those in the drones. Whether it is more complex in structure, I do not know.

The workers hatch from an impregnated egg, which can only come from a queen that has met a drone, and is always laid in the small, horizontal cell. These eggs are in no wise different, so far as we can see, from those which are laid in the drone or queen-cells. All are cylindrical and slightly curved ([Fig, 26, b, c]) and are fastened by one end to the bottom of the cell, and a little to one side of the centre. As already shown, these are voluntarily fertilized by the queen as she extrudes them, preparatory to fastening them in the cells. These eggs, though so small—one-sixteenth of an inch long—may be easily seen by holding the comb so that the light will shine into the cells. With experience, they are detected almost at once, but I have often found it quite difficult to make the novice see them, though very plainly visible to my experienced eye.

Fig. 26.

b and c—Eggs. d, e, f and g—Various sizes of larvæ. h—Pupa. i—Pupa of queen, in queen-cell. k, k—Caps.

The egg hatches in three days. The larva ([Fig, 26, d, e, f, g]), incorrectly called grub, maggot—and even caterpillar, by Hunter—is white, footless, and lies coiled up in the cell till near maturity. It is fed a whitish fluid, though this seems to be given grudgingly, as it never seems to have more than it wishes to eat, so it is fed quite frequently by the mature workers. It would seem that the workers fear an excessive development, which, as we have seen, is most mischievous and ruinous, and work to prevent the same, by a mean and meager diet. The food is composed of pollen and honey. Certainly of pollen, for, as I have repeatedly proved, without pollen, no brood will be reared. Probably some honey is incorporated, as sugar is an essential in the nutrition of all animals, and we could hardly account for the excessive amount of honey consumed, while breeding, by the extra amount consumed by the bees, consequent upon the added exercise required in caring for the brood. M. Quinby, Doolittle, and others, say water is also an element of this food. But bees often breed very rapidly when they do not leave the hive at all, and so water, other than that contained in the honey, etc., cannot be added. This makes it a question if water is ever added. The time when bees seem to need water, and so repair to the rill and the pond, is during the heat of summer, when they are most busy. May this not be quaffed to slake their own thirst?

In six days the cell is capped over by the worker-bees. This cap is composed of pollen and wax, so it is darker, more porous, and more easily broken than the caps of the honey-cells; it is also more convex ([Fig, 26, k]). The larva, now full grown, having lapped up all the food placed before it, surrounds itself with a silken cocoon, so excessively thin that it requires a great number to appreciably reduce the size of the cells. These always remain in the cell, after the bees, escape, and give to old comb its dark color and great strength. Yet they are so thin, that cells used even for a dozen years, seem to serve as well for brood as when first used. In three days the insect assumes the pupa state ([Fig, 26, h]). In all insects the spinning of the cocoon seems an exhaustive process, for so far as I have observed, and that is quite at length, this act is succeeded by a variable period of repose. The pupa is also called a nymph. By cutting open cells it is easy to determine just the date of forming the cocoon, and of changing to the pupa state. The pupa looks like the mature bee with all its appendages bound close about it, though the color is still whitish: