PLATE 1.42. QUEEN STING

LEFT Photomontage showing the entire ventral surface of the sting. The two barbed lancets, in close apposition, overlay the stylet trough to form the venom channel. On either side are the distorted (in specimen preparation) sheath lobes of the sting. Each sheath lobe is extended proximally from beneath an oblong plate. Medial to each plate, near the top of the montage is a forked structure; each "tine" or ramus connects proximally with a triangular plate, which in turn is associated with a quadrate plate. The latter sclerite ties alongside (to the Outside of) the oblong plate. See the Appendix, Fig. A. 1. (x 94)

MIDDLE RIGHT Lateral view of the abdominal tip. The ultimate abdominal segment seen here is number seven; the seventh tergal and sternal plates enclose most of the sting as well as segments eight to ten. The aperture through which eggs and feces pass when expelled from the body also functions as the entrance to the sting chamber. The fuzzy projections arising from the floor of the sting chamber are the tips of the sting sheath. The arrow at the bottom left of the field points to the area further magnified in the bottom right micrograph. (x 31)

BOTTOM RIGHT Medial surface of the abdominal tip (ventral sclerite) revealing myraids of stout cuticular spines (arrow in right middle micrograph) ( x 62)

TOP RIGHT Higher magnification of the abdominal tip in the right middle micrograph showing the setose condition of the sting sheath at its proximal origin. (x 250)