36o PHYSIOLOGY OF THE INVERTEBRATA. 



by far than our retinal vision, and their ocelli of problematical 

 value, and the complete absence of muscular adjustments in 

 either one or the other. Can we conceive that, with organs so 

 different, anything like a similar perceptual world can be 

 elaborated in the insect mind ? I, for one, cannot. Admitting, 

 therefore, that their perceptions may be fairly surmised to be 

 analogous, that their world is the result of construction, I do 

 not see how we can for one moment suppose that the percep- 

 tual world they construct can in any accurate sense be said to 

 resemble ours." 



" The sounds produced by insects are, in a great proportion 

 of cases, effected by the friction of the hard parts of the 

 integument one against the other .... Landois, however, 

 found that the thorax of a bluebottle fly continued to buzz 

 after the separation of the head, the wings, the legs, and 

 the abdomen. . . . The acoustic apparatus, in fact, lies in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the thoracic stigmata. . . . 

 The vocal organ of the fly appears to be a modification of the 

 occlusor apparatus of the stigmata, just as the organ of voice 

 of mammals is a modification of the occlusor apparatus of their 

 respiratory opening." 



In Apis the voice organs are three-fold, the vibrating wings, 

 the vibrating rings of the abdomen, and the true vocal apparatus 

 in the breathing aperture or spiracle ; the first two produce 

 the buzz ; while the hum — surly, cheerful, or colloquially 

 significant — is due to the vocal membrane. Some of the bee's 

 notes have been interpreted. " Huumm " is the cry of con- 

 tentment;* "wuh-wuh-wuh" glorifies the incessant accouche- 

 ments of the queen ; " shu-u-u " is the frolic note of young 

 bees at play; "ssss" means the muster of a swarm; "brrr " 

 the slaughter or expulsion of the drones ; the " tu-tu-tu " of 

 newly-hatched young queens is answered by the " qua-qua- 

 qua " of the queens still imprisoned in their cells. 



• * The poet Byron says in I>(yn, Juan (c. i. v. 123) — " Sweet the hum of 

 bees." 



