AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 13 



division of labour is beautifully exemplified in the 

 economy of the hive, still there are not separate classes 

 of worker bees (as was at one time supposed) to 

 perform the different sorts of work ; on the contrary, 

 every worker bee is capable of doing all these things, 

 and they take their turns accordingly. " One bee in 

 her time plays many parts." The young bees are 

 employed on " home duty " for the first week or two; 

 they then take their turn of outdoor work, and are 

 gradually worn out in the service. Their term of life 

 is short, varying from only six or seven weeks in the 

 busiest working season to several months after that 

 busy time is past. 



STRUCTURAL ORGANISATION. 



Under this headirjg'.it is my intention briefly to touch 

 upon two or three of the chief organs of the queen 

 and worker bees, but for a fuller treatise on the 

 anatomy and physiology of the honey-bee I must refer 

 my readers to the third edition of this work. 



HEAD OF WORKER BEE. 



Within the small limits of a bee's head there are 

 contained several important organs, some of them of 

 a very complex nature. These are — the compound 

 eyes; the simple eyes, or stemmata; the mouth and its 

 appendages ; and the antennas. The engraving, Fig. 

 5, shows a front view (on a greatly magnified scale) of 

 a worker bee's head. 



The Compound Eyes are shown at b b, at right and 

 left on top, and the simple eyes between them. Each 

 compound eye is composed of something like 3,500 

 hexagonal convexities, or facets, which according to 

 Cheshire are about one-thousandth of an inch in 

 diameter, and are independent instruments of vision. 

 The compound eyes are believed to be used chiefly for 

 distant vision, and the simple eyes for objects near a;t 

 hand. . 



The Antennae (a) are wonderful structures under the 



