The honey-bee belongs to the order Hexapods, or true Insects. The first
term is appropriate, as all have in the imago or last stage, six legs.
Nor is the second term less applicable, as the word insect comes from
the Latin and means to cut in, and in no other articulates does the
ring structure appear 80 marked upon merely a superficial examination.
More than this, the true insects when fully developed have, unlike
all other articulates, three well-marked divisions of the body (Fig.
2), namely: the head (Fig. 2, _a_), which contains the antennæ (Fig.
2, _d_), the horn-like appendages common to all insects; eyes (Fig.
2, _e_) and mouth organs; the thorax (Fig. 2, _b_), which bears the
legs (Fig. 2, _g_), and wings, when they are present; and lastly, the
abdomen (Fig. 2, _c_), which, though usually memberless, contains
the ovipositor, and when present, the sting. Insects, too, undergo a
more striking metamorphosis than do most animals. When first hatched
they are worm-like and called larvæ (Fig. 12), which means masked;
afterward they are frequently quiescent, and would hardly be supposed
to be animals at all. They are then known as pupæ, or as in case of
bees as nymphs (Fig. 13). At last there comes forth the imago with
compound eyes, antennæ and wings. In some insects the transformations
are said to be incomplete, that is the larva, pupa and imago differ
little except in size, and that the latter possesses wings. We see in
our bugs, lice, locusts and grasshoppers, illustrations of insects with
incomplete transformations. In such cases there is a marked resemblance
from the egg to the adult.
As will be seen by the above description the spiders, which have only
two divisions to their bodies, only simple eyes, no antennæ, eight
legs, and no transformations (if we except the partial transformations
of the mites), as also the myriapods, which have no marked divisions of
the body, and no compound eyes--which are always present in the mature
insect--many legs and no transformations, do not belong to the order
Insects.
SUB-ORDER OF THE HONEY BEE.
The honey bee belongs to the sub-order Hymenoptera (from two Greek
words meaning membrane and wings), which also includes the wasps,
ants, ichneumon-flies and saw-flies. This group contains insects which
possess a tongue by which they may suck (Fig. 20, _a_), and strong
jaws (Fig. 21) for biting. Thus the bees can sip the honeyed sweets of
flowers, and also gnaw away mutilated comb. They have, besides, four
wings, and undergo complete transformations.
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