36 



THE ANATOMY OF THE HONEY BEE. 



the body. It is again specially developed on the palpuslike append- 

 ages of the sting. (See figs. 36 and 37, StiiPlp.) Sections of a bee's 



antenna show that there are 

 Hn. ,,^*^ on its surface a great number 



of minute structures of sev- 

 eral different kinds, though 

 all apparently are to be re- 

 garded as modified hairs, 

 which are undoubtedly the 

 sense organs. Now the diffi- 

 culty arises of deciding which 

 of these to assign to the sense 

 of touch and which to the 

 sense of smell. Different au- 

 thors have made such differ- 

 ent interpretations of the 

 sense organs of insects that 

 the student attempting to get 

 informatioji on the subject 

 from books must soon be dis- 

 couraged by their conflicting 

 statements. But it must be 

 realized that only intelligent 

 guessing is possible where 

 several senses are located on 

 the same part. In the case of 

 the bee some authors have 

 ascribed even a third sense, 

 that of hearing, to the an- 

 tennae, but there is little evi- 

 dence that bees possess the 

 power of hearing. The senses 

 of taste and touch are pos- 

 sessed by the mouth parts, 

 and some entomologists think 

 that they contain organs of 

 smell also. Thus, the organs 

 of sight are apparently the 

 only ones that can not be con- 

 fused with some other sense. 

 The best account of the 

 antennal sense organs of the 

 bee is that of Schiemenz (1883) , whose drawings are here reproduced 

 (fig. 12) and whose text is the basis of the following descriptions. 

 The organs consist, as before stated, of modified hairs and their basal 



Fig. 12. — Antennal hairs and sense organs 

 (after Schiemenz). A, example of antennal 

 hairs (Hr) imbedded in cuticle (Ctl) but 

 having no nerve connection ; B, hollow hair 

 containing prolongation of special cell (CZ) ; 

 C, D, straight and curved tactile hairs con- 

 nected with basal cells (CI) and nerve fibers 

 (Nv) ; E, conical hair (Hr) sunljen in a pit 

 (Ft) of the cuticle, probably an olfactory 

 organ ; F, closed sac shut in by thin disc 

 (/if) on surface of antenna and containing a 

 delicately poised cell (CI) with nerve con- 

 nection (Sv). 



