BEES. - Ql 



characters and the external appearance of horses, and also 

 has some knowledg'e of then' complaints or diseases, which 

 presupposes some knowledg'e of their org-ans. Yet every one 

 considers tliat he can keep bees, even if he does not know 

 the difference between the head and the thorax, or considers 

 that the stomach and the honey-bag* are identical. We 

 will, therefore, first take a survey of the external org*ans of 

 the bee. 



As all insects are, it is divided into three distinct portions^ 

 called the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. 



On each side of the head are placed the eyes. They are 

 arrang-ed into two clusters, and appear at first sight to be 

 merely two eyes. Those clusters, however, are, in fact» 

 composed of many thousand each, of a hexagonal form, and 

 closely resembling' a honey-comb if placed under a powerful 

 microscope. The surface of the eye is defended from dust, 

 wet, and other annoyances by slightly curved, elastic hairs, 

 springing from the junctions of the angles of the hexagonal 

 eyes. To see the eye properly in the microscope, it must be 

 carefully cleansed from the colouring matter, which will bo 

 found lining its interior, and if then it should prove too 

 opaque, Canada balsam will render it sufficiently transparent 

 for the observer. On account of the projecting hemisphe- 

 rical form of these groups of lenses, the insect is enabled to 

 see on every side without turning its head, a feat, indeedj^ 

 which in the bee is impossible, on account of its shape. 



The eyes of that most ferocious and ravenous of insects, 

 the tiger-beetle, are remarkably prominent, and the same 

 thing- may be noticed in the swiit and rapacious dragon-fly. 



Besides these two great groups of composite eyes as they 

 are called, each bee possesses three very small single eyes, 

 called stemmata. These are placed in a triangular position 

 upon the very top of the head, and are so minute that they 

 cannot be seen without the aid of a lens of some power. The 

 iise of the stemmata has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained. 



The antennae or horns, as they are sometimes called, are 

 organs of considerable importance, but their precise use has 

 never yet been discovered ; some think them to be organs of 

 hearing, others that they serve as guides to the bees in their 

 dark hives, and others, perhaps with more reason, that they 

 are the organs of a sense which we ourselves do not possess, 



