CHAPTER VII 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND THE SENSES 
In ordei that bees may respond to factors in the environ¬ 
ment, obviously these influences must be perceived. The 
organs which receive the stimuli from without are the special 
organs of sense. The resulting nervous impulses are then 
transmitted through the nervous system, by means of which 
also the actions of the animal are coordinated and molded 
in response to the stimuli received. The nervous system 
and its various organs of special sense are therefore of the 
highest importance to the animal and the influence of the 
stimuli of the environment are so important in the behavior 
of these insects as to justify a separate chapter. 
Nowhere in the entire discussion of bee activities is it 
more necessary to avoid comparisons with our own actions 
than here. Man is capable of conscious and volitional 
acts while evidence of such acts in bees is lacking. Further¬ 
more, the structure of the nervous sj^stem and of the sense 
organs is so unlike analogous structures in man that at¬ 
tempts at homologies are entirely unwarranted. 
NERVOUS SYSTEM 
1 his system of organs consists of a series of nerve masses 
called ganglia (Fig. 84, Gng ) situated on the mid-ventral 
line of the body, the ganglia being connected by a pair of 
longitudinal cords, called connectives. The nerve cells are 
located in the ganglia while the delicate processes from 
these neive cells, the nerve fibers, form the connectives 
and also go to all parts of the body, some serving to trans- 
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