4 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



' ' The worker spends much of her time in the open air. Ac- 

 curate and powerful vision are essentials to the proper prosecu- 

 tion of her labors, and here I found the compound eye possess- 

 ing about 6,300 facets. In the mother of this worker I expected 

 to find a less number, for queens know little of daylight. After 

 wedding they are out of doors but once, or at most twice, in 

 a year.* This example verified my forecast, by showing 4,920 

 facets on each side of the head. A son of this mother, much a 

 stay-at-home also, was next taken. His facets were irregular 



Fig. 1. 



THE COMPOSITE EYE OF A WORKER-BEE MAGNIFIED. 



(Copied from the Atlante di Apicoltura, microscopic studies of Count 

 fJaetano BarbS, of Milan.) 



in size, those at the lower part of the eye being much less than 

 those near the top; but they reached the immense number of 

 13,090 on each side of the head. Why should the visual ap- 

 paratus of the drone be so extraordinarily developed beyond 

 that of the worker, whose need of the eye seems at first to be 

 much more pressing than his?'' 



• When going out with a swarm. 



