32 Natural History of the Honeybee. 



swarms not belonging to them put out so-called bait skeps, or hives; and if the scouting 

 bees discover these they often lead the swarm there. 



One of the highest colonies. ever found (300 feet high) was in the statue of Liberty 

 on the dome of the capitol in Austin, Texas. How high the scouting bees must have flown 

 to discover this strange place, 85 and what power of allurement the explorers must have 

 used to be able to lead the' colony to such an unaccustomed height! 



THE EYES OF BEES. 

 Before we turn further to other interesting observations concerning the memory of 

 locality, let us inquire why there are such large well-developed eyes in the three kinds of 

 bees, if orientation through the sense of sight be denied. This is no idle question, for 

 wherever eyes are but little or not at all used, a gradual stunting takes place, etc.; thus, 

 for example, to restrict ourselves to social insects, in the ant, Solenopsis fiif/ax, the workers 

 possess eyes with six to nine facets, while the workers of Apis mellifica have about 4000 

 to 5000, the drones about 5500, and the queen about 5000 facets on each eye, besides the 

 three ocelli which are apparently for distinguishing near objects. 96 Bethe has since rejected 

 the statement that the ocelli are probably used for seeing near objects, as incompatible 

 with the 1 1 first principles of physiology. ' ' I thereupon replied that the renowned physiolo- 

 gist Johann Miiller was the first to advance this view, and that observations' in natural 

 history confirm and even substantially support it. I have communicated the details in my 

 " Stammesgeschichtlichen Entstehung des Bienenstaates ' ' (pp. 90-95), Leipzig, 1903. 



Bethe credits bees with only "a slight capacity for receiving light stimuli" (Bethe, 

 p. 82), basing his view upon an experiment which I on the other hand can not consider 

 convincing. If a large screen be placed in their way, the routine-loving bees will follow* 

 the usual path of flight until within 1 to 1^ meters of the obstacle, then suddenly rise 

 and fly over it. But this does not prove conclusively that the bees had not long before 

 seen the immense screen (two and a half meters high and. three meters broad). They follow 

 freely the accustomed path as long as possible. Bethe himself says < * that a once used 

 correlation of movements may be retained for a long time" (Bethe, p. 92). 



In order to experiment to see that bees, instead of being 1 1 near-sighted, ' ' are very far- 

 sighted, stand at a distance of about ten steps from the hive at the time of the buckwheat 

 bloom, the nectar of which, as already mentioned, excites bees extraordinarily. The bees 

 coming out from the hive-entrance quickly, wholly indifferent as to the direction of the 

 wind, leave painful proof of their ability to see; and a man presents a considerably smaller 

 surface than the screen before mentioned. 



"According to our knowledge, everything in living nature has a purpose" (Bethe, p. 

 19); therefore the very large eyes of bees must be for the purpose of guiding the insect 

 safely and well.* 7 



The brain of the bee, very strongly developed in comparison with those of other 

 insects, is certainly not without purpose. The powerful optic lobes (Lohi optici) prove un- 

 questionably the great share that the eyes have in the nervous processes. 



THE FLIGHT OF ORIENTATION. 

 How much bees need eyes in flying out from the hive, shows in a very clear way 

 from their striking behavior during the first flight. As the bees fly out they turn their 

 heads toward the hive, and in the continuous hovering up and down (resembling the 

 gnat's dance), the hive itself, the neighboring hives, and the bee-house are surveyed; and, 

 indeed, I repeat it, the head is constantly turned toward the hive, so that even a slight flying 

 backward is shown. This is the so-called first-play (Vorspiel) 98 which is not taken into 

 consideration at all by Bethe, and has not been considered by him as a specially charac- 

 teristic proof of the orientation by the sense of sight. After this short preliminary flight, 

 small and then larger orientation circles are taken, and thereby the near and distinct 

 surroundings are impressed on the memory. 



95 American Bee Journal, 1892, Chicago. 



^Thos. Wm. Cowan, The Honey-bee, its Natural History, Anatomy, and Physiology ; London, 1890- 

 German by Gravenhorst; Braunschweig, 1891. a. c. ' 



OT Up to the present time no one has doubted that the house-fly (about 5000 facets), or the dragon- 

 fly (about 12,000 facete), orients itself during flight solely through the excellently developed eves ° 



« Dathe, 1. c, p. 146.. * ' 



