Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/471

 BEE 451 have been conquered. Retiring to their deserts when danger threatens, it is almost impossible for their enemies to follow, where the wells are only known to themselves. But they have not unfrequently suffered terrible retaliation for their robberies. Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mehemet AH, in his campaigns against the Wa- habees, was perhaps their most successful as- sailant. The Bedouins have been marauders and scourges over the neighboring territories from the earliest ages ; and in the 7th century, when stirred up to the highest degree of ex- citement by the preaching of Mohammed, they became the terror of both Asia and Europe. BEE, the name of several genera of honey- making insects, of the order hymenaptera, family anthophila, divided by Latreille into the two sections andrenidos, solitary bees consisting only of males and females, and apiaria, either solitary or living in large or small societies. Of the different genera of bees no fewer than 250 species are natives of Great Britain. I. Honey Bee (apis), the best known, most widely diffused, and most useful genus of the apiaria. The common honey bee (A. mellifica, Linn.) is probably of Asiatic origin, whence it has spread over Europe, has been introduced in America, and is found in nearly all the wanner portions of the world. There are many other species of apis, as A. ligustica, of Spain and Italy; A. unicolor, of Madagascar ; A. Indica, of India ; A. faiciata, of Egypt; and A. Adanso- nii, of Senegal. The generic description of A. mellifica will answer in the main for all others domesticated in hives and apiaries. The bee has four membranaceous naked wings, the up- per being the larger ; the mouth is furnished with two strong mandibles and four palpi, 'larg- est in the working bee, and used not so much in eating as in breaking hard substances in their various labors ; the teeth, concave scales with sharp edges, are attached to the ends of the jaws and play horizontally. For taking up liquids it has a long flexible proboscis or trunk, performing the office of a tongue, though it is formed by a prolongation of the under lip ; it is solid, and not tubular like the trunks of other hymenopterous insects; the trunk is supported on a pedicle, and is protected by a double sheath ; the central portion, which ap- pears like a thread or silky hair, under the microscope is seen to terminate in a sort of button fringed with hairs, and the whole organ to its very base is surrounded with similar fringes, admirably adapted for licking up fluids. The eye is large, composed of a great number of six-sided facets thickly studded with hairs ; there is one on each side of the head, and be- tween the antennas there are three small bright spots, considered by Swammerdam and Reau- mur as eyes. From the fact of bees recognizing their hives from long distances, and flying in a straight line toward them with the greatest rapidity, it would seem that the sense of vision is very acute ; at the same time we see them run- ning their heads against the hive, and actually feeling their way to the door with their anten- nae ; so that their composite eyes are probably fitted only for distant vision. Whether the 1. Pollen basket of Bee mainlined. 2. Trunk of a Bee mag- nified. 8, 8, 8. Bees constructing cells. 4. Larva of the Bee magnified. 5. Bee seen through a magnifying glass at the moment when the cakes of wax appear between the segments of the abdomen. spots described by Swammerdam are eyes or not, it seems that the antenna chiefly guide the bees at night and in the vicinity of near objects. The antennse are composed of 13 ar- ticulations in the males, and of 12 in the fe- males ; from their great flexibility and constant motion, most of their impressions from with- out are doubtless received through these ; by them every object is examined and many of the operations of the hive performed, as building the comb, storing the honey, feeding the larva, and ascertaining the presence and wants of the queen ; their removal completely changes the instincts of both workers and queen. The legs are six in number ; in" the hind pair of the workers the middle portion is hollowed into a triangular cavity or basket, surrounded by a margin of thickly set hairs ; in this receptacle are carried the pollen, propolis, and other hive materials; at the end of the feet are little hooks by which they adhere to the hive, and to each other during the wax-secreting process ; the other pairs of feet have a pencil of hairs on the tarsi by means of which the pollen is col- lected, and brushed off from their bodies on arrival at the hive. The bee has two stomachs : the first is a large membranous bag, pointed in front, for the reception and retention of the honey; no digestion takes place in this, the analogue of the crop of birds ; its walls are muscular and capable of throwing back the honey into the mouth for deposition in the cells or distribution to the working bees ; di- gestion is performed in the second stomach, which is of a lengthened cylindrical shape, communicating with the first stomach, and