GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



head, is longer than the others, and can move in every di- 

 rection. The antenna is covorod with hairs. 



sc tm 



Fig. 2. 



LONGrrUWNAL SECTION OJ" DRONE ANTENNA, NERVE STRUCTURES 

 REMOVED. 



(MagDifled 20 times . From Cheshire . ) 



A. -.f, scape;^, flagellum; 1, 2, &c. , numher of joints: a/", antennary fos- 

 sa, or hollow; tr, trachea; '/«, soft memhraue; toA, wehbed hairs; hii, levator 

 muscle; tim, depressor muscle. 



B, small portion of flagellum (magnified 60 times); ii, nerve; t, articula- 

 tion of joint. 



"These hairs, standing above the general surface, constitute 

 the antennas marvelous touch organs ; and as they are distributed 

 all round each joint, the vsrorker-bee in a blossom cup, or with its 

 head thrust into a cell in the darkness of the hive, is, by their 

 means, as able accurately to determine as though she saw; while 

 the queen, whose antenna is made after the same model, can per- 

 fectly distinguish the condition of every part of the cell into 

 which her head may be thrust. The last joint, which is flattened 

 on one side, near the end, is more thickly studded, and here the 

 hairs are uniformly bent towards the axis of the whole organ. 

 No one could have watched bees without discovering that, by the 

 antennae, intercommunication is accomplished ; but for this pur- 

 pose front and side hairs alone are required ; and the drone, 

 unlike the queen and worker, very suggestively, has no others, 

 since the condition of the cells is no part of his care, if only the 

 larder he well furnished." (Cheshire.) 



20. The celebrated Francois Huber, of Geneva, made a 



