Well, I think the study was published in 1996, but the structure and function of the stinger "assembly" had been studied before, of course. It doesn't seem to be primarily capillary-action based. The barbed lancets (2) alternately extend and retract, digging the stinger in deeper. When they extend, a bell-shaped diaphragm pulls venom from the sack and simultaneously pushes venom from the pumping chamber into the hollow channel. I haven't found any references to actually trying to push venom through by squeezing the sack... but I bet somebody has measured how much, if any, you can expel that way. Best image I found of the parts: http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/bee_stings.htm Best description I found of how it works: http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/stingstructure.html On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 1:13 PM, Chris Slade <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Huh! How about that?! It turns out that the injection system is > based upon valve action, not venom sack pumping -- there are no > uscles around the sack. > Is this new? I was told 30 years ago that the sting does not act like a > hypodermic syringe but that the venom flows along the grooves by capillary > action. > Chris > *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm