22 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



aged more than the former by twenty to 

 twenty-five lbs. per colony. Another mem- 

 ber stated that the buckwheat honey-flow 

 had really not been as good as last year, but 

 it had been remarked by the small-hive men 

 that, owing to less swarming, and, therefore, 

 less broken-up stocks, they had secured more 

 than the usual amount of buckwheat honey. 

 It was admittedly an eye-opener to some. 



NERVOUS SYSTEM OF BEES. 



In our last article was given an account of 

 the muscles of insects where the close simi- 

 larity between those of insects and higher an- 

 imals was pointed out. It was shown that, 

 in a general way, there was very little differ- 

 ence, though the interesting fact was stated 

 that, in insects, the muscles are very much 

 stronger and more quick to act. They seem 

 to show a perfection which is found in no 

 other group of the animal kingdom. As was 

 stated in the last article, sensation and vol- 

 untary motion are the exclusive function of 

 animals; and where animals show a superi- 

 ority in these functions we regard them high- 

 er in the scale of life. Of course, muscular 

 action and voluntary motion are in close ac- 

 cord, and thus, in one sense, insects (and, of 

 course, our bees, which stand at the head of 

 the insect world ) may be said to rank very 

 high. Even man has not the muscular 

 strength in proportion to quantity that the 

 insects exhibit. 



It will be interesting, also, to study the 

 nervous system of insects and compare it 

 with that of ourselves and the higher ani- 

 mals, and see if we come out any better in 

 this comparison. The brain and nerves are, 

 of course, the chief seat of sensation as well 

 as of voluntary motion — in fact, of all mo- 

 tion. While the muscles are the real actors 

 in motion, yet they must gain their stimulus 

 in all normal action directly from the nerves; 

 and, in case of voluntary motion, where the 

 will and consciousness take part the brain is 

 the great center of action. It is, then, of pe- 

 culiar interest to study this part of the in- 

 sect organism and note its development. 



The nervous system of all Arthropoda, 

 which includes all animals with a jointed 

 structure, which also have jointed legs or 

 feet, is different from that of any other of 

 the great group of animals. High up in the 

 head is the brain, which, for size and devel- 

 opment, compares well with even the highest 

 of animals. From this runs a double nerve 

 cord which separates to surround the (Esoph- 

 agus, or gullet, and then runs to the under 

 aide of the body at the very front part of the 



thorax, or great division of the body just 

 back of the head. It then extends the whole 

 length of the body along the under side. The 

 double cord here seems single, but the mi- 

 croscope reveals its true nature. In passing 

 along from thorax to tip of the abdomen it 

 passes through a number of ganglia. In the 

 larvaB of all insects there are very many of 

 these ganglia, which are merely collections 

 of cells of gray matter, often one for every 

 segment of the body. In the change to the 

 mature insect the number of these always 

 diminishes so that, while there are seventeen 

 ganglia at first in the larva, the adult work- 

 er bee has only nine. This includes the 

 brain, which maybe said to be the first gan- 

 glion, and which, of course, is large and high- 

 ly developed. 



As in the higher animals, including men, 

 the nerve system is made up of two kinds of 

 tissues — the cells, or ganglia, which is gray in 

 color, and nerves, or fibers, which are white. 

 We may compare nerve action to the tele- 

 graph, the ganglia are the operators, while 

 the nerves are the wires which convey the 

 messages. There are also two great systems. 

 One I nave just described, while the other, 

 consisting of scattered ganglia, in us is called 

 the sympathetic system. It is more closely 

 connected with the involuntary organs, and 

 has to do with the stomach, intestines, etc. — 

 those organs which move without our voli- 

 tion or knowledge. These influence the ac- 

 tion of the involuntary or unstriped muscles. 

 After we eat, the stomach and intestines move 

 not a little. The stimulus to such motion 

 evidently comes thi-ough these sympathetic 

 nerves. In our own bodies we refer to the 

 first system as the cerebro-spinal and the oth- 

 er as the sympathetic. In insects we refer to 

 them as the brain and ventral nerve cord 

 and the sympathetic system. We thus see 

 that the nervous system in insects is in no- 

 wise peculiar except in position. It only re- 

 mains to be said that the nerve fibers are, as 

 in our own case, of two kinds — sensitive and 

 motor. The sensitive fibers extend from the 

 skin and sensitive membranes to the gray 

 matter of the cord or brain. These then car- 

 ry the sensation from the outside to the cen- 

 ters, and without them in healthy action we 

 should not sense what is going on about us. 

 The motor fibers, on the other hand, convey 

 from brain to muscle, and carry the impulse 

 which immediately causes action. A reflex 

 act is where we act in response to a sensation 

 received. Habitual action and also instinc- 

 tive acts are probably reflex acts with the 

 spinal cord as the center. As the brain must 

 act to make us conscious, such actions proba- 

 bly have their center in the spinal cord. 

 Some actions which are usually unconscious 

 may, upon occasion, become conscious; and 

 while such actions are usually involuntary, 

 volition may come in as we notice in respira- 

 tion. In all these respects we see little dif- 

 ference between the nerve action in insects 

 and ourselves. 



I referred to the brain or the cephalic gan- 

 glia of insects. When this is uncovered, as 

 shown by Dujardin, it shows well-marked 



