196 EYES OF INSECTS. 



to multiply objects to its natural possessor, but it lias never- 

 theless been converted by the ingenuity of man into a curious 

 optical instrument of multiplying power. Through the eye 

 of a Flea (so placed as to command objects with the assis- 

 tance of a microscope) a single soldier has appeared as at once 

 diminished and multiplied into a Lilliputian army, while the 

 flame of a single candle has been made, in like manner, to 

 represent a grand miniature illumination. 



The eyes of Butterflies present on examination the ap- 

 pearance of a multiplying glass of tin's description, the facets 

 bearing a resemblance to a cut diamond. The ocelli or simple 

 eyes, appearing as little points of crystal, seated mostly above 

 the compound pair, and usually three in number, are supposed 

 to be intended, generally as well as in Bees, for the purposes 

 of near vision such as examination of leaves, flowers, &c., 

 serving for food, or presenting it in the smaller "fry' by 

 which they are frequented. 



The position of Insect eyes is in several cases worthy of 

 especial notice : affording in their variations from the common 

 type, so many remarkable instances of that kind . creative care 

 which adapts each organ with excniisite nicety to its intended 

 use. 



In that little shining Beetle, called the Wliirlwig, which may 

 be seen every summer's day whirling about the surface of 

 smooth waters, each of the eyes is, as it were, divided into 

 an upper and a lower half : the one for looking up into the 



