GEXERAL CHARACTERISTICS. H 



the location of the organ is more difficult. The small holes 

 which were discovered on the surface of the antennae, have 

 been considered as organs of hearing by Lefebure (1838), 

 and b}' others later. Cheshire has noticed these small holes 

 in the six or seven last articulations of the antennae : holes 

 which become more numerous towards the end of the antenna, 

 so that the last joint carries perhaps twenty. He, also, con- 

 siders these as the organs of hearing, especially because they 

 are larger in the drones, who may need to disting-uish the 

 sounds of the queen's wings.* On this question. Prof. Cook, 

 in his "Bee-keepers' Guide," says : 



"No Apiarist has failed to notice the effect of various sounds 

 made by the bees upon their comrades of the hive, and how con- 

 tagious are the sharp note of anger, the low hum of fear, and 

 the pleasant tone of a swarm as they commence to enter their 

 new home. Now, whether insects take note of these vibra- 

 tions as we recognize pitch, or whether they just distinguish 

 the tremor, I think no one knows. ' ' 



26. It is well proven that bees can smell with their an- 

 tennas, and Cheshire carefully describes the ''smell hollows/' 

 not to be mistaken for the "ear holes." wliicli are smaller, but 

 also located on the antennae. 



''In the case of the worker, the eight active joints of the an- 

 tenna have an average of fifteen rows, of twenty smell-hollows 

 each, or 2,400 on each antenna. The queen has a less number, 

 giving about 1,600 on each antenna. If these organs are olfac- 

 tory, we see the reason. The worker's necessity to smell nectar 

 explains all. We, perhaps, exclaim — Can it be that these little 

 threads we call antennae can thus carry thousands of organs 

 each requiring its own nerve end? But greater surprises await 

 us, and I must admit that the examinations astonished me 

 greatly. In the drone antenna we have thirteen joints in all, 

 of which nine are barrel-shaped and special, and these are 

 covered completely by smell-hollows. An average of thirty 

 rows of these, seventy in a row, on the nine joints of the two 

 antenna?, give the astounding number of 37,800 distinct or- 



* The queens and the drones, in flight, each have a peculiar and eas- 

 ily distinguishable sound. 



