52 AUSTRALASIAN 



THE EYES. 



In this illustration the compound eyes are shown on the 

 right and left hand side, at b b, and the simple eyes hetween, 

 on the top of the forehead, in a triangular position, at g. In 

 the drone the compound eyes meet together at top, and the 

 simple eyes are forced down to near the middle of the fore- 

 head. The compound eyes occupy a great portion of the head ; 

 they form on each side an oval lobe, convexly rounded, with a 

 brown, horny surface, which is divided into an immense number 

 of hexagonal facets, looking, when magnified, very like a 

 honeycomb, and each of which facets is in fact the surface of a 

 separate eye. There are supposed to be about 3,500 in each 

 compound eye of a bee. These are immovable, and each has a 

 very limited range of vision, but from the way in which they 

 are placed the bee must be able to see with them in a great 

 range without turning its head. These eyes are not supposed 

 to be capable of adjustment for different distances, but to be 

 chiefly useful for distant vision, while the small simple eyes, 

 or stemmata, in front of the head, are most probably intended 

 for seeing objects near at hand. Our knowledge about the 

 bee's sense of vision, as well as its other senses of hearing, taste, 

 and smelling, is still very imperfect. Sir John Lubbock, after 

 making very careful experiments, is clearly of opinion that 

 bees can distinguish different colours easily, and that they have 

 a partiality for blue. It has been frequently remarked that 

 they seem to discern objects better at a great distance than 

 when near at hand. They fly homewards from any distant 

 point in very direct lines, apparently guided by remote land- 

 marks, but they frequently knock against persons or things, as 

 if they had not perceived them at a little distance ; and if they 

 happen to alight ever so little to one side of the entrance to 

 their hive, they are just as likely to go to the wrong side as to 

 the right one in looking for it. 



THE MOUTH. 



The mouth consists of an upper lip (labrvm) and under lip 

 (labium), and of two pairs of jaws, the upper pair short and 

 horny, called the mandibles, shown at c in the figure, and the 

 lower pair long and more membranous, called the maxillae, and 



