46 
THE SENSES OF BEE3. 
may suppose, of removing to sucli a distance from the 
desired object as is suited to the properties or focus 
of its visual organ. We are led to conclude, therefore, 
from these well-known facts, that the eye of the Bee 
has a lengthened focus, ami that it must depend on 
the aid of other organs in those operations wherein its 
attention is directed to objects close at hand. 
Feeling or Touch . — The organs of this sense are 
supposed, with reason, to reside in the antenna; and 
palpi or feelers, particularly in the former, Huber 
concludes that the antennte supply the want of sight 
in the interior of the hive, and that it is solely by 
their means they are enabled to construct their combs 
in darkness, pom - their honey into the magazines, feed 
the young, judge of their age and necessities, and recog- 
nise their queen. Though it does by no means appear 
clear that the bees are devoid of sight when employed 
in their in-door operations, — though, on the contrary, 
there is reason to believe, as already stated, that the 
stemmata or ocelli serve as orbs of vision, — this natu- 
ralist is probably not wrong in ascribing to the antennae 
an important share in these operations. That the 
bees use them as means of communication and recog- 
nition, seems readily admitted by apiarians. When 
a hive has lost its queen, the event, as may well be 
supposed, causes a high degree of agitation in the 
colony ; the disturbed workers, who have first, by 
some unknown means, acquired the knowledge of this 
public calamity, soon quit their immediate circle, and, 
“ meeting their companions,” says Huber, “ the an- 
tennae are reciprocally crossed, and they slightly strike 
