Anatomy of the Bee's Sting

Abstract

DURING a recent inquiry into the existing knowledge of the chemistry of bee poison, I examined also the anatomy of the bee's sting, a subject to which I venture to direct attention. It is stated, and the evidence seems to be undeniable, that the sting of the worker bee is the insect's ovipositor metamorphosed into an efficient weapon of attack. On the basis of the principles of evolution, it would be said that the conditions producing the specialised activities of the worker bee required also the change indicated. By inference, obviously, one must turn to the queen bee, whose existence is justified solely by her egg-laying capacities, and who may have been specialised in this direction—an opposite one to that of the worker. But here, too, is found the same metamorphosis to an almost equal extent, so that it would seem, considering that the genital opening is below the base of the sting (itself the original ovipositor), that stinging was of vastly more importance to the queen bee than egg-laying. But since the queen employs her weapon a few times only during her life, this suggestion falls to the ground. The only other explanation seems to be that at a certain stage in the evolutionary development of insects the ovipositor underwent metamorphosis before bees and their specialism came into being as such, and that it persisted in this form.