[Illustration: Apidæ. Fig. 9.—Mode of folding the tongue in repose. 1. In abnormal bee. 2. In normal bee. _a_, point of articulation beneath the hypopharynx: _b_, apex of the tongue.]
The entire proboscis, with all its appendages attached, has in the _Apidæ_ three distinct hinges or articulations, including that which attaches it by its extreme base to the under surface of the mouth and lower portion of the head, the cavity of which, when folded, it fills, and even then the apex of the tongue protrudes in some genera beyond the sheathing maxillæ. In the _Andrenidæ_ it has but two articulations, and the maxillæ always cover them entirely in repose. The first articulation, forming the fulcrum of the whole, is always elbowed in the _Apidæ_, and consequently not capable, like the rest of the joints, of full linear extension. The attached diagram will give a clearer conception of the mode of folding: _a_ is the labium, and _b_ the tongue.
As we have no complete description of the mode by which the tongue of the bee is worked, and how it gathers up its honey, I thought it desirable to be fuller upon the subject than was originally my intention.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.—Mandibles: 1, of leaf-cutter bee (_Megachile_); 2, of burrower (_Andrena_); 3, of parasite (_Nomada_).]
The last portion of the _trophi_, also double, are the mandibles; they articulate on each side with the cheeks; they act laterally, and are variously formed, according to the economy of the insect. In the females they are usually more or less toothed, and are especially broad, curved, and toothed in the artisan bees. In _Apis_ and _Bombus_ they are subdentate. In males they are frequently simply acute, but in some species, especially in _Andrena_, they have a long spine at the base, which points downwards when they are closed. To this sex they appear to be of no use beyond aiding them to stay the wayward caprice or flight of their mistresses; and, although they have an analogical structure in the males of those genera wherein they are much dilated and toothed, yet they do not seem to be at all used by that sex for any purpose but sexual. In the females they are used for the construction of their burrows and nests, and for the purpose of nipping the narrow spurs and tubes of flowers to get at the nectar; and they often nip, whilst seeking pollen, the anthers of the flowers which have not yet burst their receptacles of pollen.