BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Flies, as is well known, will secrete themselves in window-frames and other hiding-places, subject to cold atmosphere, for weeks at a time, and yet revive on exposure to warmth. \(\Delta\)s is well known, also, ants have been repeatedly dug out of logs, frozen solid --in fact, fairly enveloped in frost; yet on exposure to warmth they will come to. Some hibernators can endure a freezing temperature, while others, like the bear, woodchuek, and the like, can not. Other very interesting incidents may be taken from natural history; but the purpose of this article is to consider whether bees go into a quiescent state that _approrocks_ hibernation, in which there is low respiration and a small consumption of stores.
Two or three years ago we put a number of cages of bees with some queens (laying the cages down on eakes of ice) in a refrigerator. The bees were chilled to absolute stiffness. Every day we would take out a cage, and each time the bees would revive, including the queen. This thing was continued for several days, and yet the bees would "come to" each time.
The strange part of it was, that the queens went on laying normally when put back in the hives, instead of laying drone eggs as we expected. Just what the temperature to which these bees were subjected was we can not say -- probably something below 40 and something above 35, for the doors of the refrigerator were frequently opened, and the ice was constantly melting.
During one winter, when a very cold snap came on--the temperature going down to zero--we put out some cages of bees, exposing them to the cold wind, which was then blowing a pretty good gale, when the temperature was 5 above zero. We had expected that the bees possibly might be able to survive the shock for a number of hours, and yet revive; but 20 minutes of zero freezing was sufficient to kill them outright. If we had taken the bees and gradually acclimatized them to the cold, first subjecting them to 40, then to 35, and gradually down to the zero point, they would possibly have withstood the shock.
When the weather warmed up a little we took several cages of bees and buried them in the snow, leaving with them a thermometer so that we might know the absolute temperature. We went out and got a cage of bees about every two or three hours, and we found that we could revive then without difficulty; but at the end of 24 hours the bees, when they " came to," seemed somewhat to be the same.
What the worse for the experience. The temperature in the snow played around the 32 mark. But the experiments conducted during the summer would seem to show that bees might stand a temperature of 3s for a number of days.
We know it to be a fact that the bees on the outside of the ball or cluster, in an outdoor-wintered colony, will often be chilled stiff while those inside have almost a blood temperature. It has occurred to us that, during very severe weather, the outside bees may be gradually replaced by those within the cluster; for we know the bees are in constant movement. Experiments show that a starved bee will not stand as much cold as one that is well filled. Bee-keepers who have had any experience in wintering outdoors know how repeatedly thay have taken clusters of bees that seemed to be frozen stiff, yet when warmed up before a good fire would revive and appear as lively as ever.
In view of the experiments we have thus far conducted, it would appear that bees might be able to stand a temperature of 40, or slightly below that, for a number of days; but if a warm spell does not come within a week, or less, those bees in their chilled condition may starve to death. But if it warms up,the cluster will unfold and the bees take food, and so be ready for another "freeze." The authors have repeatedly seen clusters of bees, after a zero spell, lasting a couple of weeks, that were stone dead; but the honey had been eaten from all around them within a radius of an inch or more. If a zero spell of weather continues more than a week or ten days, we always find some of the weaker colonies frozen to death in the spring.
There are some interesting phenomena in connection with chilled bees--their quiescent sleep, their low respiration, their light consumption of stores--that simulates a condition of semi-hibernation. The bee in a chilled condition can go only a few days without food, while a bear, a true hibernator, may go all winter. When the temperature of a bee-cellular goes up to 50 or 60 the bees are active. Their respiration is normal. They must have ventilation, or die in large numbers. If we can maintain a temperature down to 45, with slight variation, there is a state of sleep where the respiration is ver low, food consumption slight, and consequently fresh air is not needed, or not more than what will percolate through the walls of the repository.
There is a practical side to this matter; for if we can induce semi-hibernation or
## Wintering.
torpor we cut down the consumption of stores.
bees flying out on childy oil cold days and apparently flying on the ground.
In this connection there are a few other interesting facts that are worth recording here. In early winter or early spring, bees will very often fly out on a bright day, whether it is very warm or not. They might on the ground or some object, become childed, and apparently die. Cases are on record where bees have flown out, alighted on the ground, become stiff and cold, and were apparently dead. There was one instance in particular of this kind where thousands of bees had flown out and lay on the ground apparently never to return. A cold rain set in and then it began to freeze, followed by some snow. This freezing weather lasted for a couple of days. This was followed by warm sunshine, when, wonderful to relate, those dead (?) bees came to life, took wing, and flew back to their hives. Other authentic reports, showing something similar to this have been sent in. It seems almost unbelievable, but the facts are, that bees can fly out, alight in the snow, chill through, and seem to be dead. If the snow is not too deep it melts away so that the bodies of the bees can become warmed up, when they will often revive; they always revive, if it is warm enough, and they have not been chillied too long.
Jiee keepers have written in at many different times, fearing that their bees had flown out in late fall, and, becoming chilled on the ground, were utterly lost; but, when a warm day comes on a little later, these bees, if it has not been too cold, will return to their hives.
Old Dame Nature seems to have made some wonderful provisions to preserve beef. We are therefore constrained to believe that bees can stand, under some conditions, chilling cold for some days without killing them.
**WOMEN AS BEE-KEEPERS.** See Bereening for Women.
**WIRING FRAMES.** See Coib Foundation.
## X Y Z.
This is the scientific name of the genus to which the carpenter bees belong. Of course they do not gather honey, but we frequently receive large bees from readers which they suppose are some giant form of our own honey-bees. The largest and finest-looking bees in the world belong to the genus _Xylocopa_. There are possibly 10,000 species of bees in the world, of which believable, but the facts are, that bees can fly out, alight in the snow, chill through, and seem to be dead. If the snow is not too deep it melts away so that the bodies of the bees can become warmed up, when they will often revive; they always revive, if it is warm enough, and they have not been chillied too long.
This is the scientific name of the genus to which the carpenter bees belong. Of course they do not gather honey, but we frequently receive large bees from readers which they suppose are some giant form of our own honey-bees. The largest and finest-looking bees in the world belong to the genus _Xylocopa_. There are possibly 10,000 species of bees in the world, of which only eight are regarded as _Ayls_. The latter, though small and humble-looking, occupies the top of the class on account of its higher development.
**YELLOW SWET CLOVER.** See Clover, sub-head Sweet Clover.
**ZINC,** Perforated. See Drones and Extracted Honey.
**Appendix**
[The following article came too late to be inserted in its regular place in the body of the work.]
**The Anatomy of the Bee**
BY R. E. Snodgrass
_of the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C._
The three parts of the body of the bee are well separated by constrictions. The head carries the eyes, antennae, and mouth parts; the thorax, the wings and legs; and the abdomen, the wax-gland and sting.
The _head_ is flattened and triangular, being widest crosswise through the upper corners, which are capped by the large compound eyes. It carries the _autenne_, or feelers, on the middle of the face (Fig. 2, \(\Lambda\), \(\Lambda\)nt); the large _compound eyes_ (_E_) laterally; three small simple eyes or _vcelli_ (_O_), at the top of the face, and the _mouth parts_ (_Md_, _Mx_, and _Lb_) venturally. Each antenna consists of a long basal joint and of a series of small ones hanging downward from the end of the first. The antennae are very sensitive to touch, and contain the organs of smell. \(\Lambda\)t the lower edge of the face is a loose flap (Fig. 2, \(\Lambda,L\)m) forming an upper lip called the _bottom_. On its under surface is a small soft lobe called the _cippharynx_ on which are located the organs of taste. At the sides of the labrum are the two heavy jaws, or _mundibles_ (_Md_), which work sidewise. They are spoon-shaped at their ends in the worker, but sharp-pointed and toothed in the queen and drone. Those of the queen are largest, those of the drone smallest. Behind the labrum and the mandibles is a bunch of long appendages, usually folded back beneath the head, which together constitute the _propose_ (Fig. 2, \(\Lambda\), \(P\)_rb_). These organs correspond with the second pair of jaws, or _max-illire_, and the lower lip, or _labium_, of other insects. In Fig. 2 they are cut off a short distance from their bases, but are shown detached from the head and flattened out in Fig. 3, D. The middle series of pieces (_smt-Lb_) constitutes the labium, the two lateral series (_Ccl-Mx_) the maximise. The labium consists of a basal _submentum_ (_Smit_), and a _mentum_ (_Mt_), which supports distally the slender, flexible, tongue-like _glossa_ (_Gls_), the two delicate _paraglosse_ (_Pgl_), and the two lateral, jointed labial pair (_Lb_\(I^{\prime}\)_p_). Each maxilla is composed of a basal stalk, the _eardo_ (_Cd_); a main plate, the _slipes_ (_Sl_), and a wide terminal blade (_Mx_) called the _gate_. At the base of the galea is a rudimentary _maximillary pelpus_ (_MxP_?_p_), representing a part which in most insects consists of several slender joints.
As before stated, the parts of the maximise and the labium together constitute the probocsis, which, as shown in Fig. 2, B, is suspended from a deep cavity (_PrbS_) on the lower part of the buck of the head having a membranous floor. The basal stalks (_Cd_) of the maximise are hinged to knobs on the sides of this cavity, while the labium is attached to the maxillary stalks by means of a flexible band called the _lorum_ (Fig. 3, D, _Lr_).
When the bee wishes to suck up any liquid, especially a thick liquid like honey or syrup, provided in considerable quantity, the terminal lobes of the labium and maximize are pressed close together so as to make a tube between them. The labium is then moved back and forth between the maxillle with a pump-like motion produced by muscles within the head. This brings the liquid up to the mouth, which is situated above the base of the probocsis, between the mandibles and beneath the labium. The food is probably then taken into the mouth by a sueking action of the pharynx produced by its muscles.
A more delicate apparatus is probably necessary, however, for sucking up minute drops of nectar from the bottom of a flower. Such a structure is provided within theglossa.** This organ (Fig. 3, D, _Gls_), ordinarily called the "tongue," is terminated by a delicate, sensitive, spoon-like lobe known as the labella (Fig. 3, A, B, and D, _Lbl_), and has a groove (\(k\)) running along its entire length on the ventral side. Within the glossa this groove expands into a double-barreled tube (Fig. 3, E, _Ltan_). A flexible chitinous rod (\(r\)) lies along the dorsal wall of this channel, which is itself provided with a still finer groove (\(l\)) along its ventral surface. Thus the very smallest quantity of nectar may find a channel suited to its bulk through which it may run up to the base of the glossa by capillary attraction. But since the glossal channels are ventral the nectar must be transferred to the dorsal side of the labium by means of the para-glosse, the two soft lobes (Fig. 3, D and F, _Pgl_) whose bases are on the upper side of the mentum, but whose distal ends underpin the base of the glossa, and thus afford conduits for the nectar around the latter to the upper side of the labium. The glossa is highly extensible and retractile by means of muscles attached to the base of its rod, and its movements when a bee is feeding are very conspicuous, and interesting to watch.
The _thorax_ of any insect carries the wings and the legs. The two wings of the bee on each side are united to each other by a series of minute hooks so that they work together, and the four wings are thus practically converted into two. Each wing is hinged at its base to the back, and pivoted from below upon a small knob of the side wall of the thorax. The up-and-down motion of the wings is produced, not by muscles attached to their bases, but by two sets of enormous muscles, one vertical and the other horizontal, attached to the walls of the thorax, whose contractions elevate and depress the back plates of the thorax. Since the fulcrum of each wing is outside of its attachment to the back, the depression of the latter elevates the wings, and an elevation of the back lowers the wing. But the bee flies by,a propeller-like action, or figure-8 motion of the wings. This is produced by two other sets of much smaller muscles acting directly upon the wing bases, one before and the other behind the fulcrum 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 deflexation 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 antennae- and brushes on the last, are illustrated in Fig. 4. The tarsi are each provided with a pair of terminal _clave_ (_E_, _Cla_), by means of which the bee elings to rough objects, while between the claus is a sticky pad, the _cmpdum_ (_Emp_), which is brought into play when the bee aligits on or walks over any smooth surface like glass.
The hint part of the thorax of i ees, wasi 8, and their allies is composed of a segment which, in other insects, is a part of the abdomen. It is known as the _propodum_. The middle division of the body of a bee, wasp, or ant, therefore, is not exactly the equivalent of the thorax of a grasshopper, fly, or butterfly.
The _abdomen_ of the bee has no appendages corresponding with those of the head or thorax; but it bears two important organs, viz., the wax-glunds and the sting. The _vex-glunds_ are simply specially developed cells of the skin on the ventral surfaces of the last four visible abdominal segments of the worker. There are only six segments visible in the apparent abdomen; but remembering that the propoleum of the thorax is really the first, the wax-glunds occur, therefore, on segments four to seven inclusive (Fig. 1, IV-VII). The wax secreted by the glands is discharged through minute pores in the ventral plate of each segment, and accumulates in the form of a little scale in the pocket above the underlapping 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. Fundamentally it consists of three slender, closely appressed pieces forming the sharp piercing organ that projects from the tip of the abdomen (Fig. 1, _Skn_), and of two soft finger-like lobes, sometimes also visible, all of which arise from three pairs of plates belonging to the eighth and ninth segments of the abdomen, but which are concealed within the seventh segment.
Fig. 5 shows, somewhat diagrammatically, all the parts of the left side. The acute stinging shaft swells basily into a large bulb (_ShB_) which is connected by a basal arm on each side with two lateral plates (_Ob_ and _Tri_). The finger-like lobes, called the _pulpi of the sting_ (_SmPlp_) are carried also by the lower of these two plates (_Ob_) while the upper (_Tri_) carries the third and largest plate (_Qbl_) which partially overlaps the lower (_Ob_).
## Anatomy of the Bee.
A close examination of the sting proper shows that both the bulb and the tapering shaft are formed of three pieces. One is dorsal (_SbL_B and _SbL_S) while the other two (_Let_) are ventral (of course only one of the latter shows in side view). Furthermore, the basal arm on each side is formed of two pieces, one of which (_SbL_A) is continuous with the dorsal piece of the sting, while the other (_Let_) is continuous with the ventral rod of the same side. Since these ventral rods are partially enclosed within a hollow on the under side of the dorsal piece, the latter is called the _sheath of the sting_. It consists of the terminal _sheath_ of the sheath (_SbL_S), the _bulk_ (_SbL_B), and of a _basal arm_ (_StA_) on each side.
The ventral pieces are slender sharp-pointed rods having bar-ed extremities, and are known as the _tuncts_. The shaft of the sheath is grooved along the entire length of its ventral surface, the groove enlarging into a spacious cavity in the bulb. The lanects lie close together against the ventral edges of the sheath, but slide freely upon minute tracks on the latter. The three parts, therefore, incluse between them a cavity which is tubular in the shaft, but enlarged into a wide chamber in the bulb. The great poison-sac (Fig. 8, _PsnSc_) of the acid-glands of the sting opens into the base of the bulb along with the smaller, the _poison_ is an acid liquid formed by the glands (Fig. 8, _AGl_, _AGl_, and _Bdl_). Two of these (_AGl_ and _AGl_) are simply small enlargements at the ends of two long coiled tubes (_AGl_D), which latter unite into a short single tube that opens into the anterior end of the great _poison-sac_ (_PsnSc_). The secretion of these glands is acid. The third gland (_BGl_) is a short, somewhat twisted tube opening into the bulb of the sting along with the poison-sac. Its secretion is alkaline. Carlet has shown that it is only the mixture of these two secretions that has the full strength in stinging properties.
Figure 2: -Head of worker with parts of probes cut off a short distance from their buses. A anterior: B. posterior: \(a\), clypical suture: _Amt_, antenna: \(b\), plt in clypical suture marking anterior end of internal bar of head: \(c\), plt on occipital surface of head, markup posterior end of internal bar: _Cd_, cardio: _Urb_, Clypens: \(E\), compound eye: _Epr_, formsem magnuum: _Ft_, front: _Ge_, gen: _Gls_, glossion, or _tounge_: \(R\), ventral groove of glossion: _Lb_, labium: _LbP_, labial: palipsis: _Em_, labrum: _Md_, manlophic: _Md_, menu: _Mb_, nomuli: _Mr_, terminal blade of mr_, _MrPl_, muxiliary pulips: \(O\), occill: _Pw_, postgeman: _Pol_, praurons: _Phy_, base of probes: _PrbFs_, fossa of probes: _Sml_, sublumentum: _Sl_, stipes: _Ion_, sma! bar of teutourion arching over foramen magnuum: _Yr_, vertex.
The _allimentary canal_ (Fig. 6) consists of a tube extending through the entire body, and coiled somewhat in the abdomen. The first part above the mouth in the head is widened to form the _pharynx_ (_Phy_). Then follows the long slender _esophagus_ (_C_), running clear through the thorax and into the front of the abdomen, where it enlarges into a thin-walled bag, called, in general, the _crop_, but which is known as the _hoiey-stomach_ (_IHS_) in the bee. Back of the honey-stomach is a short narrow _proventielus_ (_Prent_), which is followed by the large U-shaped stomach, or _eutriculus_ (_Fent_). Then comes the slender _small_ intestine (_SInt_) with the circle of _Mulplighian tubules_ (_Mol_) arising from its anterior end. Finally, forming the terminal part of the alimentary canal, is the _large_ intestine, or _rectum_ (_Rect_), consisting of an enormous sack, varying in size according to its contents, but often occupying a large part of the abdominal cavity. Six opaque longitudinal bands on its anterior end are known as the _rectal glands_ (_RGl_).
The honey-stomach is of special interest in the worker because the nectar gathered from the flowers is held in it, instead of being swallowed on down into the stomach, and is regurgitated into the cells of the comb, or given up first to another bee in the hive. The upper end of the proventriculus sticks up into the lower end of the honey-stomach as a small cone with an X-shaped opening in its summit. This opening is called the _stomach-mouth_. Its four lips are very active, and take whatever food the ventriculus requires from the honey-stomach, for it must all go into the latter first, while at the same time it affords the bees a means of retaining nectar or honey in the honey-stomach.
The natural food of bees consists of pollen, nectar, and honey. The first contains the nitrogen of their diet, and the other two the hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Observations made by the writer indicate that the pollen is not digested until it gets into the intestine, for masses of fresh-looking grains nearly always occur in the rear part of the ventriculus, which is otherwise filled with a brownish slime. On the other hand, the nectar and honey is very probably digested in the ventriculus, and in large part absorbed from it.
The _saliency glands_, located in the back part of the head (Fig. 6, \(ar{\mathpzc{E}}\mathit{Gl}\)) and in the front part of the thorax (\(ar{\mathpzc{E}}\mathit{Gl}\)) open upon the upper part of the labium (Fig. 3, F, \(ar{\mathpzc{E}}\mathit{d}\mathit{D}\mathit{D}\mathit{D}\)). The saliva can thus affect the liquid food before the latter enters the mouth, or it can be allowed to run down the probosci upon hard sugar in order to dissolve it, for the latter is eaten with the probosci, not with the mandibles.
The large glands (Fig. 6, \(\mathit{I}\mathit{Gl}\)) situated in the front part of the head are supposed, by some students of the bee, to form the white pasty brood food and the royal jelly. Others think that these substances come from the stomach. More investigation of the subject must be made, however, before the question can be decided; but the contents of the stomachs of workers have no resemblance to the brood food.
The _circulatory_ system is very simple, consisting of a delicate, tubular, pulsating _heart_ (Fig. 1, \(\mathit{I}\mathit{U}\)) in the upper part of the abdomen, of a single long blood-vessel, the _aorta_ (_Ao_), extending forward from the heart through the thorax into the head, and of two pulsating membranes, the _diophra_\(\zeta\)_ms_ (_DDph_ and _VDph_), stretched across the dorsal and ventral walls of the abdomen, but leaving wide openings along their sides between the points of attachment. The heart consists of four consecutive chambers, _Iht-iht_, which are merely swellings of the tube, each having a vertical slit or _stisum_ (_Ost_) opening into each side. The _blood_ is the colorless liquid that fills the spaces about the viscera of the body cavity. The dorsal diaphragm and the heart pulsate forward. The blood in the cavity above the former enters the ostia of the heart, and is pumped forward through the aorta and out into the cavity of the head. From here it percolates back through the thorax and enters the space beneath the ventral diaphragm (_VDph_) of the abdomen. This membrane pulsates backward, and the blood is driven posteriorly and upward, through the lateral openings, around the abdominal viscera, and again into the dorsal or pericardial cavity of the abdomen, where it begins its circulation anew. In insects the principal function of the blood is to distribute the food which dissolves into it from the alimentary canal.