The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-01-30
g9nme and farm,
IN. Wings of Bees

8ac Bl1pS VI
Gen. D /. AdaiT at The iate meet
irg Of the American Bee Keepers
l4~oci4l.9a, at Louisville, KY, Taad
an abfcgayer on the wings Of bes-,
in which n Introduced some original
Do;uts. In relation to The structure oi
The wiugs, he says:
To tie novice the wings Of the bee
appear a. d dry membrane or tissue
of skin, stretched over frame work
Of equally as dry and ifeless ribs Of
lard. elastic, horny matter. He dOes
not suspect that they have other use
than to enable the bee to fly, or that
their loss or destruction does other
injury than to disable them from flight
1t is a comH;H practice, even among
vel inforuGod apiarisDs, 10 cut Of the
wing OF the queen 10 prevent her going
OF with q swarm. A better acquaInt
ance with the structure and uses Of
the wings would show that any such
inatilation Trust be injurious.
Bees do not breathe through the
mouth, neither 10 they have lungs,
ike the higher animals. Respiration
Is carried oD through an iotricate ram
ifcaGon Of minute tubes called trdchea
having their outlets or mouths IS
pores (callei spiracles or stig0,Gta) in
the siGea Of their bodies, under and
behind their wings, Through these
breathing pores tie air is led by those
delicate tnbcs TO every part Of the
body, even &c the Ii ps Of the wings.
Bees have no heart as higher ami
m lis have. A tube, or as it is called
a "dorssl vessel" ling just beneath
the middle line OF the back and ex
tending from the head 10 the tip of
the abdomen, performs that office.
The blood is received into this tube !
and, as bees have no veins proper, it |
escapes from all parts Of the tube and
trayerses the body in currents, bathing
all the organs, even to the extremities
cf the wings.
The nervous system of bees con
sists Of q cord, or rather a double
cord, commencing in a knot in the
head, which is their go-called brain
from thence IT extends throughout
the whole length OF the body under
all the internal organs, resting on the
''hoor'' or the body walls. On this
cord, at intervals, there are sgelIiDgs
(gangLial from which fine filaments
are sent out, which are special nerves
for the various organs TO which they
bad one branch 10 the wings Is dis
.ributed through all parts OF them.
The horny frame upon which the
inc membrane of the wings Is stretch
ID, is ali Of it composed of hollow
.ubes of hard substance called CHI
inc (the same substance that consti- s
utes the hard parts OF the organs and |
rust Of all insects). Those tubes are G
loubIe, being one tube inside of an a
,ther. The inner ones are extensions '
# the trachea, through which the air
irculates in breathing, between which t
nd the other is spacs through which '
lie blood circulates and is brought in /
contact with the air through the thin c
walls of the air tube, just as the air !
md blood are brought together in 8
human lungs and with the same effect. t
Thus we see that the wings, besides {
,eing organs of fight, are in reality q
ungs. The blood in the wings, how :
yer, is not confined to those tubes i
Dut circulates like the sap in the leaves 8
+ plants to all parts OF them, and, It
likely, is thus also created.