HAVING now fully considered the head of the bee, we will turn our attention to the thorax; this name comes from a Latin word meaning the chest. It is the second, or middle division, of the bee’s body, and to it the head is joined by a thin neck. The thorax is the centre of movement, for it is to this part that the wing and legs are joined. Accordingly we find that it contains several large muscles, for the bee is a very powerful flier.
If we examine a bee we notice that the head seems almost black, the abdomen smooth and shiny, and that the thorax has a beautiful downy appearance. This is due to its being thickly covered with fine hairs which, when examined with the microscope, are seen to have many tiny spikes branching from them which are used for collecting the pollen grains. When a bee enters a flower the hairs are sure to come into contact with the pollen, and by means of the spikes the grains are entangled and held secure. The hairs of the queen and the drone are not so numerous as those of the worker, because these bees do not gather pollen.
If we wish to see exactly the construction of the thorax we shall have to remove these downy hairs, for they are so thick that it is impossible to see beneath them. How are we to remove them, without injuring the parts which lie below? An ingenious way of doing this is to fasten a piece of cotton around the body of the dead bee, and to hang it downwards in the hive, between the combs. In the course of a few days we shall find that every hair has vanished and that the body is beautifully polished. This has been done by the thousands of worker bees, walking over the combs of the hive. They are so busy that they have no time to stop and inquire how their sister died; and so they brush past, intent only on the fulfilment of some particular duty. In their haste they knock against the body of the bee, which is buffeted this way and that, as the busy streams of bees cross and recross the combs. After a few days of this treatment all the hairs will have been removed from it, and we shall then be able to see the actual construction of the thorax, and also the manner in which wings and legs are attached.
The thorax, we find, is divided into three distinct parts. The division nearest the head is called the pro-thorax or forward division; the second is the meso-thorax or middle division; and the third the meta-thorax or after division.