BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
'Should some alien being watch humanity during a thunder-storm, he might quite similarly decide that thunder was to us inaudible. Clap might follow clap without securing any external sign of recognition; yet let a little child with tiny voice but shriek for help, and all would at once be awakened to activity. So with the bee: sounds appealing to 'its instents meet with immediate response, while others evoke no wasted emotion.'' (Cheshire.)
A, portion of front surface of one of the lower members of the flagellum (worker or queen), s', smelling organ; f', feeling hair.
B, portion of the side and back of same (worker), h, ordinary hair; c', conold hair; ho (auditory?) hollows.
C, portion of one of the lower members of flagellum (drone).
D, portion of lower member of flagellum (back, worker or queen).
''The sound that bees produce by the vibrating of their wings is often the means of calling one another. If you place a bee-hive in a very dark room, their humming will draw the scattered bees together. In vain do you cover the hive, or change its place, the bees will invariably go towards the spot whence the sound comes.'' (Colliu, ''Guide du Propritiaire d'Abeillos,'' Paris, 18?5.)
**25.** To prove that bees can hear is easy, but to determine the location of the organ is more difficult. The small holes which were discovered on the surface of the antennae, have been considered as organs of hearing by Lefebnre (1838), and by others later. Cheshire has noticed these small holes in the six or seven last articulations of the antennae: holes which become more numerous towards the end of the antenna, so that the last joint carries perhaps twenty. He, also, considers these as the organs of hearing, especially because they are larger in the drones, who may need to distinguish the sounds of the queen's wings.* On this question, Prof. Cook, in his "Bee-keepers' Guide," says:
Footnote *: The queens and the drones, in flight, each have a peculiar and easily distinguishable sound.
"No Apiarist has failed to notice the effect of various sounds made by the bees upon their comrades of the hive, and how contagious are the sharp note of anger, the low hum of fear, and the pleasant tone of a swarm as they commence to enter their new home. Now, whether insects take note of these vibrations as we recognize pitch, or whether they just distinguish the tremor, I think no one knows."
**26.** It is well proven that bees can smell with their antennae, and Cheshire carefully describes the "_smell hollows,"_ not to be mistaken for the "ear holes," which are smaller, but also located on the antennae.
"In the case of the worker, the eight active joints of the antenna have an average of fifteen rows, of twenty smell-hollows each, or 2,400 on each antenna. The queen has a less number, giving about 1,600 on each antenna. If these organs are olfactory, we see the reason. The worker's necessity to smell nectar explains all. We, perhaps, exclaim-Can it be that these little threads we call antennae can thus carry thousands of organs each requiring its own nerve end! But greater surprises await us, and I must admit that the examinations astonished me greatly. In the drone antenna we have thirteen joints in all, of which nine are barrel-shaped and special, and these are covered completely by smell-hollows. An average of thirty rows of these, seventy in a row, on the nine joints of the two antennae, give the astounding number of 37,800 distinct or gans. When I couple this development with the greater size of the eye of the drone, and ask what is his function, why needs be such a magnificent equipment? and remember that he has not to scent the nectar from afar, nor spy out the copy blossoms as they peep bctween the leaves, I feel forced to the conclusion that the pursuit of the queen renders them neecessary." (Cheshire.)
**27**. While giving these short quotations and beautiful generavings from Cheshire's anatomy of the bee, we earnestly advise the scientific bee-student to procure and read his work. Mr. Cheshire shows us those minute organs so beautifully and extensively magnified, that in reading his book we feel as though we were transported by some Geius inside of the body of a giant insect, every detail of whose organism was laid open before us. However wonderful the statement made above, of the existence of nearly 20,000 organs in such a small thing as the antenna of a bee, this fact will not be disputed. Those of our bee-friends, who have had the good luck to meet the editor of the _British Bee-Journal_, Mr. Cowan, during his trip to America, in 1887, will lon; remember the wonderful microscopical studies, and the microscope which he brought with him. This instrument, the most powerful by far that we ever had seen, gave us a practical peep into the domain of the infinitesimal.
**2S.** Better than any other description of the smallness of atoms is that given by Fiannarion, in his "Astronomie Populaire":
"'It is proven," he says, "'that an atom cannot be largcr than one ten-millionth of a millimeter. It results from this, that the number of atoms contained in the head of a pin, of an ordinary diameter, would not be less than
\[\$,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.\]
And if it was possible to count these atoms, and to separate them, at the rate of one billion per second, it would take \(250_{j}\)-000 years to number them."
**29.** Girard reports, as follows, an experiment on the olfactory organs of our little insects:
"'While a bee was intently oecupied sucking honey, we brought near hcr head a pin dipped in ether. She at once showed symptoms of a great anxiety; but an inodorous pin remained entirely unnoticed."
**30.** Whatever he the location of their olfactory organs, they are unquestionably endowed with a marvelous power of detecting the odor of honey in flowers or elsewhere.
One day we discovered that some hees had entered our honeyroom, through the key-hole. We turned them out, and stopped it up. Some time after, more hees had entered, and we vanily searched for the creviee that admitted them. Finally a feebie hun caused us to notice that they were coming down the chimney to the fire-place, which was closed by a screen. The wedge which held this screen having become somewhat loose, the motion of the screen in windy weather opened a hole just large enough for a bee to crawl through. A few bees were waiting behind the screen, and as soon as its motion allowed one to pass, she manifested her joy by the hunming which led to the discovery. These bees, escaping with a load, when the door was opened, had become customary and interested visitors.
**31.** Every bee-keeper has noticed that their flight is guided by the sent of flowers, though they he a mile or more away. In the city of Keokuk, situated on a hill in a curve of the Mississippi, the bees cross the river, a mile wide, to find the flowers on the opposite bank.
**32. ''Not only do bees have a very acute sense of smell, but they add to this faculty the remembrance of sensations. Here is an example: We had placed some loney on a windcw. Bees soon crowded upon it. Then the honey was taken away, and the outside shutters were closed and remained so the whole winter. When, in Spring, the shutters were opened again, the bees came back, although there was no honey on the window. No doubt, they remembered that they got honey there before. So, an interval of several months was not sufficient to efface the impression they had received.--(Huber, ''Nouvelles ''Observations sur les Abeilles,''Geneve, 1814.)
**33.** It is well known, also, that bees wintered in cellars (**646**) remember their previous location when taken out in the Spring.
If food is given to a colony, at the same hour, and in the same spot, for two days in succession, they will expect it the third day, at the same time and place.
**34. ''When one of her antenna is cut off, no change takes place in the behavior of the queen. If you cut both antennae near the head, this mother, formerly held in such high consideration by her people, loses all her influence, and even the maternal instinet disappears. Instead of laying her eggs in the cells, she drops them here and there.''--(Huber.)**
The experiments made by Huber on workers and drones, in regard to the loss of the antennae, are equally conclusive. The workers, deprived of their antennae, returned to the hive, where they remained inactive and soon deserted it forever, light being the only thing which seemed to have any attraction for them.
In the same way, drones, deprived of their antennae, de serted the observatory live, as soon as the light was excluded from it, although it was late in the afternoon, and no drones were flying out. Their exit was attributed to the loss of this organ, which helps to direct them in darkness.
**35**. The inference is obvious, that a bee deprived of her antennae loses the use of her intellect.
''If you deprive a bird, a pigeon, for instance, of its cerebral lobe, it will be deprived of its instinet, yet it will live if you stuff it with food. Furthermore, its brain will eventually be renewed, thus bringing back all the uses of its sens?s,''(Claude Bernard, ''Science Experimentale.'')
Bees, however, cannot live without their antennae, and these organs would not grow again, like the brains of birds, the legs of crawfishes, or the tails of lizards.
**36**. Let us notice, in reference to the sensorial organs, that the brain of workers is very much larger than that of either the queen or the drone, who need but a very common instinct to perform their functions; while the various occupations of the workers, who act as nurses, purveyors, sweepers, wasteful wardens, and directors of the economy of the bee-hive, necessitate an enlargement of faculties very extraordinary in so small an insect.
**37**. We cannot leave this subject without quoting the celebrated Hollander, Swammerdam, as Cheshire does:
''I cannot refrain from confessing, to the glory of the immense, incomprehensible Arehiteet, that I have but imperfectly described and represented this small organ; for to represent it to the life in its full perfection, far exceeds the utmost efforts of human knowledge.''
**38**. We have now come to the most difficult organ to describe--the mouth of the bee. But we will first visit the interior of the head and of the thorax, to find the nursing and salivary glands, and explain their uses.
**39**. The workers have three pairs of glands : two pairs, different in form, p!aeed in the head (fig. 6), and one larger pair located in the thorax or corse!et. The upper pair, which resembles a string cf cnics, is absent in the drones and queens. According to Girard, these upper g'ands were discovered by Meckel in 1846. They are very large and dilated in the young worker bees, while they act as nurses, but are slim in the bees of a broodless colony. In the old bees, that no longer nurse the brood, they wither more and more, till they become shrunken and seemingly dried. Hence Mauriee Girard, and others before him, have concluded very rational:y that these upper glands produce the milky food given to the larvae, during the first days of their development. Mr. Cheshire has confirmed the very reasonable:e theory that the queen, during the time of egg-laying, is fed by the workers from the secretions of this gland.
\(\bullet\)These facts have been demonstrated so repeatedly, that they are as well established as the most common laws in the breeding cf our domestic animals.
hours, between six and nine grains of highly-developed and extremely rich tissue-forming mattcr. Taking the lowest estimate, she then yields the incredible quantity of twice her own weight daily, or more aeeurately four times, since at this period more than half her weight consists of eggs. Is not the reader ready to explain: What enormous powers of digestion she must possess! and since pollen is the only tissue-forming food of bees, what pellets of this must she constantly kcep swallowing and how large must be the amount of her dejections! But what are the facts? Dissection reveals that her chyle stomach is smaIler than that of the worker, and that at the time of her highest efforts, often seareely a pollen grain is discoverable within it, its contents consisting of a transparent mass, micro-scopically indistinguishable from the so-called "royal jelly"; while the most practical bee-men say that they never saw the queen pass any dejeetions at all. These contradictions are utterly inexplicable, except upon the theory I propound and advocate. She does pass dejeetions; for I have witnessed the fact; but these are very watery."....(Cheshire.)
Thus, according to Cheshire, the food eaten by the queen, during egg-laying, is already digested and assimilated by the bees, for her use. Her dejeetions, which are scauty and liquid, are licked up by the workers, as are also the dejeetions of the drones, if not too abundant.
**11**. The other two pairs of glands, which are common to workers, queens, and drones, evidently produce the saliva. The functions of both must be the same, for they unite in the same canal (_sol, 2, 3,_ fig. 7), terminated by a value, which, passing though the mentum or ehin (_mt_), opens at the base of the tongue. The saliva produced by then is used for different purposes. It helps the digestion; it changes the chemical condition of the nectar (**216**) harvested from the flowers; it helps to knead the scales of wax (**201**) of which the combs are built, and perhaps the propolis (**236**) with which the hives are varnished. It is used also to dilute the honey when too thick, to moisten the (**263**) pollen grains, to wash the hairs when daulul with honey, etc.
These glands yield their saliva while the tongue of the bees is stretched out; but the upper glands (No. 1, fig. 7), which open on both sides of the pharynx or mouth (_ph_), can yield their product only when the tongue is bent backwards, to help feed the larva (**64**) lying at the bottom of the eel.
**42**. The mouth of the bee has mandibles or outer jaws, which move sidewise, like those of ants and other insects, instead of up and down as in higher animals. These jaws are short, thiek, without teeth, and beveiled inside so as to form a hollow when joined together, as two spoons would do. With them, they manipulate the wax to build their comb, open the anthers cf flowers to get the honey, and seize and hold, to drag them out, robbers or intruders, cr d'ebris of any kind.
Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Fig. 11.
Head of honey- Head of honey- Mandible of honey- Mandible of honey-
hornet. bee. hernet. bee. (Magnified.) (Magnified.) (Magnified.) (Magnified.)
**43**. Fig. 10 shows the jaws of the Mexican hornet highly magnified. Fig. 11 shows the jaws of the honey-bee, highly magnified. Notice the difference in the shape of the two, the saw-like appearance of the one, and the spatula shape of the other. A glance at these figures is enough to convince any intelligent hortieultrist of the truth of Aristot!e's remark--made more than two thousand years ago--that "bees hurt no kinds of sound fruit, but wasps and hornets are very destructive to them."
We shall give further evidence cencerning the correctness of this statement. (**871**)
**44**. Below the antennae, the elypeus or shield (_cl_, fig. 7) projects, which is prolongated by an elastic rim called labrum or upper lip (_Dbr_). The pharynx is the mouth (_ph_), and the osophagus (e) the gullet, through which the food goes into the stomach.
\(\Lambda\)s we have already seen, the canals of the upper glands open on each side of the mouth, and discharge their product into it at will.
**45.** The chin or mentum (_mt_) is not literal'y a part of the mouth. It can move forward and backward, and supports several pieces, among which is the tongue, or proboseis, cr ligula (\(l\)). The tongue is not an extension of the chin, but has its root in it, and can only be partly drawn back into it, its extremity, when at rest, being folded back under the chin.
**46.** There are, on each side of the tongue, the labial palpi or feelers\({}^{*}\) (\(b\), fig. 12, and \(l_{l}\), fig. 7), which are fastened to the chin by linged joints. They are composed of four pieces each, the first two of which are broad, and the other two small and thin, and provided with sensitive hairs of a very fine fabric. Outside of the palpi are the maxilla (\(c\), fig. 12, and \(m\), fig. 7) which in some insects have the function of jaws, but whieh, in the bee, only serve, with the palpi, to enfold the tongue in a sort of tube, formed and opened at the will of the insect, and which, by a certain muscular motion, as also by the ability of the tongue to move up and down in this tube, force the food up into the mouth.
**17.** The tongue is covered with hairs, which are of graded sizes, so that these nearest the tip or button are thin and flexible. It\(-\)the tongue\(-\)is grooved like a trough, the edges of which can also unite to form a tube, with perfect joints. It is easily understood that if the tongue were a tube, the pollen retains when conveyed through it would obstruct it, especially when daubed with very thick honey.
**48.** "A most beautiful adaptation here becomes evident. Nectar gathered from blossoms needs conversion into honey. Its cane sugar must be changed into grape sugar, and this is accomplished by the admixture of the salivary secretions of Systems Nos. 2 and 3 (sd, 2, 3, fig. 7), either one or both. The tongue is drawn into the mentum by the shortening of the re
tractor linguac muscle, which, as it contracts, diminishes the space above the salivary valve, and so pumps out the saliva, which mixes with the nectar as it rises, by methods we now
Tongue and appendages.
(Magnified. After Barb.)
", tongue; b, labial pal1; c, maxilla.
understand. Bees, it has oftcn been observed, feed on thick syrup slowly; the reason is simple. The thick syrup will not pass readily through minute passages without thinning by a fluid. This fluid is saliva, which is demanded in larger quantities than the poor bees can supply. They are able, however, to yield it in surprising volume, which also explains how it is that these little marvels can so well clean themselves from the sticky body honey. The saliva is to them both soap and water, and the tongue and surrounding parts, after any amount of daubing, will soon shine with the lustre of a mirror.''--(Cheshire.)
**49**. The length of the tongue of the honey-bee is of great importance to bee-keepers. Some flowers, such as red clover, have a corolla so deep, that few bees are able to gather the honey produced in them. Therefore, one of the chief aims of progressive bee-keepers, should be to raise bees with longer tongues. This can undoubtedly be done sooner or later, by careful selection, in the same way that all our domestic plants and animals have been improved in the past. For this, _patience_ and _time_ are required.
**50**. The thorax is the intermediate part of the body. It is also called "corselet." It is formed of three rings soldered into one. Each of the three rings bears one pair of legs, on its under side; and each of the last two rings bears a pair of wings, on its upper side; making four wings and six legs, all fastened on the thorax.
**51**. Each leg is composed of nine joints (B, Plate 8), the two nearest the body (_c, tr_) being short. The next three are the femur (_f_), tibia (_ti_), and planta (_p_) also called metatarsus. The last four joints form the tarsus (_t_) or foot.
**52**. The last joint of the tarsus, or tip of the foot, is provided with two claws (_an,_ fig. 13), that eling to objects or to the surfaces on which the bee elimbs. These claws can be folded, somewhat like those of a cat (A, fig. 13), or can be turned upwards (B, fig. 13) when the bees are hanging in clusters. When they walk on a polished surface, like the pane of a window, which the claws cannot grasp, the latter are folded down; but there is between them a small rubber-like pocket, pullvilus (_pv,_ A, B,) which secretes a sticky, "elammy" substance, that enables the bee to eling to the smoothest surfaces. House-flies and other insects cling to walls and win dows by the same process. It was formerly asserted that insects eling to the smooth surfaces by air suction, but the above explanation is correct, and you can actually see "the footprints of a fly" on a pane of glass, with the help of a mierroscope, remnants of the "elammy" substance being quite discernible. By this ingenious arrangement, bees can walk indifferently upon almost anything, since wherever the claws fail, the pulvilli take their place.
**53. "But another contrivance, equally beautiful, remains to be noticed. The pulvillus is carried folded in the middle (as at C, fig. 13), but opens out when applied to a surface, for it has at its upper part an elastic and curved rod (er) which straightens as the pulvillus is pressed down, C and D, fig. 13, making this clear. The flattened-out pulvillus thus holds strongly while pulled, by the weight of the bee, along the surface, to which it adheres, but comes up at once if lifted and rolled off from its opposite sides, just as we should peel a wet postage stamp from its envelope. The bee, then, is held securely till it attempts to lift the leg, when it is freed at once; and, by this exquisite yet simple plan, it can fix and release each foot at least twenty times per second."--(Chshire.)
**54. The legs of bees, like all other parts of their body, are covered with hairs of varied shapes and sizes, the description of which is beyond the limits of this work. We will con fine ourselves to a short explanation of the uses which have a direct bearing upon the work of the bee.
The hairs of the front, or first, pair of legs (C, Plate S), are especially useful in cleaning the eyes and the tongue, and gathering the pollen grains.
**55**. On the metatarasus, the lower of the two largest joints of these front \(\mathsf{le}_{\leq}\mathsf{s}\), is a rounded notch (E, \(a\), Plate S), closed when the leg is folded, by a sort of spur or velun, (\(v\), C, E, H) fastened to the tibia, or upper large joint. The learned Dr. Dubini, of Milan (L'Ape, Milan, 1\(\times\)1), speaks of it as being used to cleanse the antennae and the tongue of the pollen that sticks to them. Mr. Cheshire thinks it is used only to cleanse the antennae, from the fact that this notch, which has teeth like a comb (F, Plate S), is found as well in the queen and the drone as in the worker, and that its aperture corresponds exactly to the different sizes of the antennae of each sex. (H, Plate S.)
**56**. The second pair of legs have no notch, but the lower extremity of the tibia bears a spur (D, \(s\), Plate S) or spine, which is used in loosening the pellets of pollen, brought to the hive on the tibas of the posterior legs (Plate S). This spur also helps in cleaning the wings.
**57**. The posterior or hind legs are very remarkable, in several respects. Between the tibia and the metatarasus (B, \(w_{p}\), Plate S) they have an articulation, whose parts close like pinecers, and which serves to loosen from the albumen the scales of wax to be mentioned further on (**201**). As neither the queen nor the drone produces wax, they are destitute of this implement.
**58**. "But the chief interest centers on the two joints last mentioned (ti, p, A, B, Plate S), as a device for carrying the pollen of the blossom home to the hive. The metatarasus is enlarged into a sub-quadrangular form, constituting a flattish plate, slightly convex on both surfaces. The outer face (p, A, Plate S) is not remarkable, but the one next the body (p, B) is furnishcd with stiff combs, the teeth of which arc horny, straight spines, set closely, and arranged in transverse rows
aeros the joint, a little projecting above its plane, and the tips of one comb slightly overlapping the basis of the next. Their colour is reddish-brown; and entangled in the combs, we almost invariably discover pollen granules, which have been at first picked up by the thoracic hairs, but combed out by the constant play of the legs over the breast--in which work, the second pair, bearing a strong resemblance to the third, performs an important part.''