Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1905 — A Bee's Sting. [ARTICLE]

A Bee's Sting.

| The sting is a bee’s only weapon. It is not the single spear that it appears to the naked eye, but consists of three prongs, each beautiful •/ grooved into i' the others, thus forming a sort of tube, through which flows the poison from | the sac, to which the sting is attached. ■ As soon as the point of the sting enters the flesh two of the prongs, which are barbed, begin to work forward alternately. When one has been thrust forward’ Its barbs catch in the flesh and hold while the other is being thnlst forward, and this motion, which also pumps the poison from the poison sac, is continued until the sting has penetrated to its full length. The sting, ac- ' companied by its appendages, is al- ' most invariably torn from the bee and ■ remains in the flesh of the unfortunate ( victim—unfortunate bee, too, as the loss of Its sting is eventually followed, by death. Hence it can be said that a bee literally defends its home with Its life.