. The honey-makers. Bees. The Bee's Tongue 19 Bumble-bees are more apt to threaten with their jaws, which are large and powerful, than are honey-bees, the latter being quicker to sting. No doubt a bumble-bee can bestow a very creditable nip with these horny organs, as it will often demonstrate by biting viciously at a pencil-point when disturbed by it. It evidently knows there is no use in wasting good sting power on a pencil- point, so it expresses its feelings with its jaws. Any bees caught in a net will bite at the meshes, and this is a very good way to watch the play of tlie jaws, which, a
. The honey-makers. Bees. The Bee's Tongue 19 Bumble-bees are more apt to threaten with their jaws, which are large and powerful, than are honey-bees, the latter being quicker to sting. No doubt a bumble-bee can bestow a very creditable nip with these horny organs, as it will often demonstrate by biting viciously at a pencil-point when disturbed by it. It evidently knows there is no use in wasting good sting power on a pencil- point, so it expresses its feelings with its jaws. Any bees caught in a net will bite at the meshes, and this is a very good way to watch the play of tlie jaws, which, as in other insects, work sideways instead of up and down, like those of the higher animals. The jaws of the bee are somewhat sickle-shaped, are more or less toothed according to the species of bee, are hard and horny in substance, are fastened at either side of the face by a hinge-joint, and meet or overlap in front when not in use. In this chapter, for the sake of clearness, the complex organ commonly known as the tongue will be called the proboscis. One approaches it with a fear which even the sting does not inspire, for probably few other organs of its size, in all the world and in all time, have been so much written about and so good- naturedly quarrelled over as has this same little bee's proboscis. We will consider, at present, only the proboscis of the worker honey-bee. When one first looks for it in a resting bee, it is found folded back under the head and out of the way. When needed, it is let down by a sort of hinge-joint,. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Morley, Margaret Warner, 1858-1923. Chicago, A. C. McClurg and company
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherch, booksubjectbees
