Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/884

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has given excellent figures and defcriptions at large of the feveral parts of this curious organ, to which we refer the reader. Reaumur's Hilt. Inf. v. 9. p. 398. Beiides this trunk, the bee has a very large mouth. This, however, is fo frequently covered with the other parts, that it is not eafy to fee it. When the trunk is extended to its length, the mouth is to be fought for immediately under the teeth, or grinders, and, in this cafe, it is often fo perfectly covered with the tongue, that unlefs that be removed, it is not to be fecn. This mouth, with this large and vilible kind of tongue, is not to be fuppofed peculiar to the bee ; feveral other flies have it, and the large humble bees all have it very perfect. As their feveral parts are alfo larger than thofe of the bee, it is better to examine the mouth and its tongue, in thofe infects, than in the bee itfelf. The tongue puts on many appearances at different times ; fometimes it is of the fhape of the tongues of other animals, and at others it is more or lefs thin or narrow ; fometimes its point is fingle, and fometimes divided into three parts, which, on fome occafions, are dif- pofed in the manner of a flower de luce. The mouth, though a part of great importance to the bee, is in general over-looked by authors ; but its ufe is plainly to give paflage to certain fubftances into the body. Thus if a bee, which has been collecting Honey, be held between the fingers, and fqueezed a little, the Honey will be forced in drops out of the end of the trunk, and thefe will fall upon and be received into the aperture of the mouth. When a bee enters into a flower which has the nectaria, or mel- leous glands, or veficles at the bafe of the petals, it generally meets with fome of this juice, which has been thrown out by thefe glands, and lies in form of a faccharine matter, in the bottom of the flower. The juices of vegetables are faccharine and melleous in other parts befidc the flowers, and there are certain times of the year in which we find the leaves of the maple, and fome other trees, covered over with this juice, cxtravafated from their leaves, and lying on their furface, in a form very much refembling Honey, rendering them gloffy to the eye, very fticky when touched, and fweet as honey or manna to the tafte. This only happens at fome times to the leaves, but it is continually the cafe in the flowers of plants; we may always tafte honey in their bottoms, and thefe necta- ria continually difcharging it from their feveral vefiels, the bee needs only thruft his trunk into the bottom of the flower to find it. If the creature be obferved in this work, it will be ■wonderful to fee how quickly fhe executes it. The trunk, which is the only inftrument that receives it, is thrown into a thoufand different motions, and is fhortened or lengthened, fhrunk up or diftended, and bent a number of ways, in order to bring it to touch feverally every part of the bottom' of the flower, and thus take up all the matter .deport ted there. The general opinion of the writers on infects has been, that the trunk of the bee is a fort of pump, and that the Honey- juices of flowers are received into it by fuctiom This mould feem not to render fo many motions as thefe neceffary for the purpofe, fince if the trunk acted as a pump, it would be only neceflary to plunge it once into the liquor, and its common action muft fuck the whole up ; but Mr. Reaumur, by re- peated experiments, proves that this part of the bee is not a pump, but merely a tongue, proper to lap with, placed at the end of a proper conveyance, by which the matter lapped up is thrown into the body. If the infide of a glafs tube, of about half art inch diameter, be daubed over in certain places with Honey, the Honey being left in fome places in drops, and in others fpread thin upon the furface, the bees will be eafily feen to perform their feveral actions in the taking it in. If this tube be placed any where near the places of refo'rt of bees, two or three will foon enter into it, and the ends may be clofed up to keep them there. They will then imme- diately forget that they are prifoners, and begin to devour the Honey ; and in their doing this, the feveral motions of the trunk will be eafily fecn through the fides of the tube. In places where the Honey is fpread thin upon the furface, they will turn the end of the trunk every way about, and apply it feveral ways to the glafs, as a dog would do to lap up the re- mains of any thing flicking to the fides of a difh; and in the places where it lies in drops, the bee introduces its trunk into it; but then it does not let it quietly remain there, as if at work in pumping up the matter, but takes it out at times, and when it is in, gives it many contortions from fide to fide, and the whole appears flill like the motions of the head and tongue of a dog, not like any operation of fucking. The whole intent of the bee feems to be the covering its tongue tho- roughly with the liquor, and then drawing it back into the cafe or fheath which makes the reft of the trunk. The mat- ter it had collected is there wiped off; and then, by the re- peated diftentions and contractions of the trunk, it is carried up to the head, and thence carried into the body. The nice art of the bee, in taking up into her body only fuch fubftances as are proper for her purpofe, was very finely feen accidentally by means of an experiment made by Mr. Reaumur, with a very different intent. He was defirous of feeing the paflage marked out, by which the bee conveyed the melleous juices into her body. With this intent he mixed fome very fine powder blue with a quantity of Honey, and fef it before the bee, ex-

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peering; that_ the coloured liquor would mark the way by which it pafTed ; but, on the contrary, he found that this lit- tle creature was able to feparate fo extremely fine a powder as this from the Honey, and, in fine, eat up all the Honey pure, and left the blue behind. Reaumur, Hift. Inf. vol. q. p. a ?! It is very certain, that the Honey or melleous juice is received into the body of the bee by this kind of lapping, not by the method of fucking, fince the aperture at the end of the trunk if there really be one, which is much to be doubted, is fo. very final!, that the liquor could be but very flowly received ; whereas it is plain, that a drop of Honey, though confide- ntly large, laid upon a plate of glafs, or otherwife, is taken in almoft momentarily by the bee. This is eafily under- ibod, by fuppoling the bee to lap it up, as we have before mentioned.

Honey has been fuppofed by many to be the only food of the bees who collea it; but this is evidently erroneous. The common food of the bee is the farina of flowers of different kinds, which, when it has ferved their little bodies as nourifh- ment, is again thrown out, in great part, at their mouths, in form of wax. With this wax they form combs, compofed of cells, in which they rear their young offspring, and in which they depolit Honey to ferve them in feafons when they cannot go abroad in fcarch of their other food. There are many fea- fons of this kind, in which they cannot go' out ; and in fome of which there is no food for them if they could. In thefe hard times they remain within the hives, and feed on the Ho- ney they had before hoarded up ; and if this proves infufficient in quantity, they are reduced to great diftrefs, and whole fwarms of them often pcrifh through famine. Reaumur, Hift. Inf. vol. 10. p. 85.

The bee does not receive the Honey, in the firft collefling it from the flowers, into the body by means of her trunk, as many have fuppofed; this trunk only ferves to colleft the fweet juice, in fmall drops, from the neflaria of flowers. When this trunk is loaded with this juice, or Honey, it depo- sits it on the tongue, which is exerted for that purpofe; and when that organ has received it, it immediately draws back into the mouth, and the Honey is fwallowcd into the cefo- phagus.

The cefophagus of the bee is a long and flerider canal, palling from the mouth of the animal into the thorax. Towards its termination in that part, it is diftended into a fort of bag which forms the firft ftomach of the bee. The children in country places are well acquainted with this receptacle of the Honey, and frequently kill the great humble bees in order to get at this part, and fuck the honey. But tho' thefe children are acquainted with the part, very great men have been much miftaken as to its ufe. Maraldi took it to be a bag, clofed at the lower end, and only deftined to re- ceive the Honey, and' difgorge it again upon occafion ; but Swammerdam, on' more careful diileclions of the creature, found it to be a real ftomach, opening into another or fecond ventricle. ■ •

The firft ftomach, when empty, is no more than a white filament, which, being hollow, is capable of receiving the Honey ; and when received, it becomes fwelled and diftended in proportion to the quantity it contains, and grows very nar- row at its lower part, where it is joined to the fecond fto'mach. This is a fort of bladder, very white, but tranfparent, and is ufually much diftended, and fo covered with large and broad circular mufcles, that it refembles, upon the whole, a tub with many hoops. This ftomach becomes again very flender and narrow at its lower end, where it is joined to the in- terlines. The fecond ftomach, and the inteftines of the bee, are often found to contain a great quantity of the rough wax ; but the firft ftomach contains only Honey. Reaumur, Hiff. Inf. vol. 10. p. 3q.

The quantity of Honey that each flower is able to afford the bee, is but very fmall ; and the creature is ufually forced to go to a great number before it can take in enougli to fill this firft ftomach ; but as foon as this is done, the creature immediately flies home and difgorges the treafure into a fafe place, where it may ferve for food at fome other time, when there is lefs opportunity of feeding abroad. Ariftotle, and fome other of the antients, have obferved, that the bee, in collecting one parcel of Honey, will only have recourfe to one fpecies of flower : Thus if file takes in the firft parcel from a violet, file will go only to violets for the remainder. But this is ah error ; fince it is common to fee a bee on a flower-bed in a garden, Supplying hcrfclf from all the variety that are fet there.

Swammerdam, who had no idea of the bees having any mouth, fuppofed that this creature difcharged the Honey into the cell of the comb, by the final! orifice which he thought there was in the end of the trunk ; but this muft have been a very tedious operation, fince the Honey is not difgorged into the comb in the fame Itate in which it was received into the ftomach, but is much thicker, having pafled a fort" of con- coction. The truth is, that the Honey is difgorged through the fame part through which it was taken in, and this is the mouth, which is fufnciently large for the purpofe. The man- ner in which bees fill the combs is very regular ; they always begin with the very farthdl cells of the uppermoft comb, and, 2 'fillinz