CHAPTER VII 

 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND THE SENSES 



IN order that bees may respond to factors in the environ- 

 ment, obviously these influences must be perceived. The 

 organs which receive the stimuli from without are the special 

 organs of sense. The resulting nervous impulses are then 

 transmitted through the nervous system, by means of which 

 also the actions of the animal are coordinated and molded 

 in response to the stimuli received. The nervous system 

 and its various organs of special sense are therefore of the 

 highest importance to the animal and the influence of the 

 stimuli of the environment are so important in the behavior 

 of these insects as to justify a separate chapter. 



Nowhere in the entire discussion of bee activities is it 

 more necessary to avoid comparisons with our own actions 

 than here. Man is capable of conscious and volitional 

 acts while evidence of such acts in bees is lacking. Further- 

 more, the structure of the nervous system and of the sense 

 organs is so unlike analogous structures in man that at- 

 tempts at homologies are entirely unwarranted. 



NERVOUS SYSTEM 



This system of organs consists of a series of nerve masses 

 called ganglia (Fig. 84, Gng) situated on the mid-ventral 

 line of the body, the ganglia being connected by a pair of 

 longitudinal cords, called connectives. The nerve cells are 

 located in the ganglia while the delicate processes from 

 these nerve cells, the nerve fibers, form the connectives 

 and also go to all parts of the body, some serving to trans- 



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