Jump to content

Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/38

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
34
ON THE ANATOMY OF

of the Bee, the real tongue, now described, has been erroneously confounded with the ligula or central piece of the proboscis, afterwards to be described. The upper jaw (Wood-Cut, page 31, fig. 1. c, c.) of the Bee, as of all other insects, is divided vertically into two, thus forming, in fact, a pair of jaws under the name of mandibles. They move horizontally, are furnished with teeth, and serve to the little labourers as tools, with which they perform a variety of operations, as manipulating the wax, constructing the combs, and polishing them, seizing their enemies, destroying the drones, &c. The lower jaws or maxillæ, divided vertically as the others, form, together with the labium or under lip, the complicated apparatus of the Proboscis. Its parts are represented in the following figure.

Proboscis
Proboscis