There is tolerably good presumptive evidence that bees have a quick sense of Hearing, from their being so sensibly affected by different sounds. The voice of the queen, for instance, has according to Bonner and Huber an almost magical effect upon them; and the practice of making some sort of noise at the time of hiving is founded upon this opinion. Huber is of opinion that if bees do possess the sense of hearing it is differently modified from the same sense among beings of a higher order. The consequences which ensue upon the production of certain sounds either by themselves or others, show that the vibrations of the air make an impression upon some sense: Huber, for reasons which he does not well define, designates it as a sense analogous to hearing, a something acting in concert with and in aid of the antennæ.
Linnæus and Bonnet thought that insects do not possess the sense of hearing; but I think they were mistaken. I have just stated the effect produced by the voice of a queen-bee, under particular circumstances; and there are other evidences, equally strong, to show that insects possess this faculty. One grasshopper will chirp in response to another, and the female be attracted by the voice of the male. Brunelli shut up a male in a box, and allowed the female her liberty: as soon as the male chirped she flew to him immediately. For further evidence of the existence of this faculty in insects, see [page 262]. (Organs of Sensation.)
The Eye-Sight of bees, notwithstanding the wonderful mechanism of their eyes, seems less perfect than their other senses: on some occasions it scarcely serves them to distinguish the entrance of their hives, when they come home loaded with provision. Wildman says that he has observed them go up and down, seeking the door of the hive, and be obliged after alighting to rise again in order to find it: he conceived that they see better when flying than when on foot. I believe, however, that this opinion of Wildman will not, upon examination, be found quite correct. The mere act of flying does not enable them to see objects better; but when on the wing, they are at a greater distance from those objects, the eyes of these insects being so constructed as to enable them to see best at a moderate distance. As Dr. Evans has justly remarked, therefore, “the poet’s disdainful allusion to a
Fly whose feeble ray scarce spreads
An inch around——
should here be exactly reversed.” Dr. Derham in his Physico-theology has observed, when speaking of the eye of the bee and other insects, that “the cornea and optic nerves, being always at one and the same distance, are fitted only to see distantial objects, but not such as are very nigh.” This visual orb, this seemingly simple speck, though really complicated piece of mechanism, says Derham, "will be found upon examination to form a curious lattice-work of several thousand hexagonal lenses, each having a separate optic nerve ministering to it, and therefore to be considered as a distinct eye[T]. M. Leewenhoeck, having properly prepared and placed an eye of this kind betwixt his microscope and a church steeple (299 feet high and 750 distant), saw plainly the steeple inverted, through every different lens, though each lens was not larger than a needle’s point. Yet, doubtless the insect perceives but a single object, and that in an upright position. The hemispheric arrangement of these lenses enables the bee to see accurately in every direction, and without any interval of time or trouble.”
[T] The multitude of hexagonal lenses which compose the eye of a bee, make it appear, when viewed through a microscope, exactly like honey-comb.
“Not huge Behemoth, not the Whale’s vast form.
That spouts a torrent, and that breathes a storm.
Transcends in organs apt this puny fly,
Her fine-strung feelers, and her glanceful eye,
Set with ten thousand lenses.”
Evans.
The eyes of all insects are immoveable, and have neither iris nor pupil nor eyelids to cover them: but this apparent defect is amply made up to them in a variety of ways: in the case before us, by the complex structure of the organs. Reaumur performed an experiment similar to that which I have just related of Leewenhoeck, and with a like result, Hooke computed the lenses in the eye of a horse-fly to amount to nearly 7000. Leewenhoeck found more than 12,000 in that of a dragon-fly; and 17,325 have been counted in the eye of a butterfly. The lenses are most numerous in the beetle, and so small as not to be easily discoverable under a pocket microscope, except the eye be turned white by long keeping.
The peculiar construction of the bee’s eye, for seeing objects best at a moderate distance, will account for the circumstance noticed by Wildman, and also for the following observation of Dr. Evans. “We frequently observe bees flying straight homewards through the trackless air, as if in full view of the hive, then running their heads against it, and seeming to feel their way to the door with their antennæ, as if totally blind.” Sir C. S. Mackenzie remarked the imperfect vision of bees, and how very much puzzled they are to find the entrances to their hives, if the relative position of the entrances be altered, or the hives be removed two or three yards from the place where they have usually stood. In cases of removal, the bees do not during the first day fly to a distance, nor till they have visited and recognized neighbouring objects. Mr. Rogers, in his “Pleasures of Memory,” has noticed this defective vision in the bee. Having spoken of her excursive flights to a distance, and referred to her bending her course homewards again, he observes,