THE BEE. 59 



The nervous system of the Bee presents the usual 

 articulate type. It consists of a pair of straight 

 parallel chords of nerve-substance that lie side by 

 side, and run along the whole ventral side of the 

 .body, beginning in the head and ending near the ter- 

 mination of the abdomen. Upon these chords are 

 distributed several ganglia or nervous centres (resem- 

 bling pearls strung upon a couple of threads), from 

 which branches proceed to the various organs and 

 members of the body. 



Krst, there is the brain (PI. VII. fig. 2, a), or, as it 

 is technically called, the cephalic, or suprawsophageal 

 ganglion. This is, strictly speaking, two ganglia 

 fused into one, as the illustration wiU show, and 

 situated (as the names denote) in the head and above 

 the throat ; each half gives out a large lateral nerve, 

 the optic nerve {nervus opticus, PL VII. fig. 2, o), 

 which divides into a bundle of finer nerves, whereof 

 one proceeds to each ocellus or subdivision of the 

 compound eye*. 



Fi'om this ganglion also nerves depart to the simple 

 eyes and feelers (fig. 2, m «) . Proceeding backwards, 

 we find another ganglion of considerable size situated 

 below the throat, and connected with the brain by 

 the double chord or commissure referred to: this 

 ganglion (the sub- or infra-oesophageal, fig. 2, b) sup- 

 plies the organs of the mouth and the first pair of 

 feet (2, 2) with nerves. Continuing our course back- 

 wards along the central chords, we arrive at the large 

 * See page 26. 



