On again looking at the plate, you will observe that the scape is covered by numerous hairs, which are both long and fine. The first three joints of the flagellum are also covered with hairs, which, however, are not like those of the scape, for they are much shorter and thicker. They look more like bristles, and all point in a downward direction. The remaining eight joints are covered with multitudes of still smaller hairs, and these again differ in their construction. To give you some idea of the complicated nature of the antennæ, I may tell you that the drone possesses over 2000 of these hairs on each one, whilst the worker has about 14,000. Each hair is connected with a nerve which is so delicate that the faintest touch of anything would be easily felt. The nerves are contained in the central part of the antennæ, which is hollow, and from there they lead to the ganglia. The bee can tell instantly the shape, height, and nature of any object by simply passing the antennæ over it. You know that if a person comes noiselessly behind you, say whilst you are reading, and lightly touches one of your hairs, you can feel the touch instantly. That is because each hair, like those of the bee, is connected with a nerve. You will easily understand, however, that the hairs and nerves of the bee are infinitely more sensitive than ours. It is necessary that the tiny workers should be provided with some means of doing things in the dark, for all the work of the hive has to be done under these conditions. The antennæ serve this purpose perfectly.

In a very powerful microscope it is found that the places between the hairs, in most of the antennæ joints at any rate, are covered with tiny oval-shaped holes and depressions. The nature and use of these holes are most difficult for us to understand, and it is not yet properly known for what they are really intended. In the first place, they are so very tiny that we can hardly imagine their size. They measure only about 1⁄10,000th part of an inch across, and each is surrounded by a minute ring of a bright orange colour. It is supposed, and I think it is quite probable, that by the aid of these holes the bee hears. There is not the slightest doubt that bees can hear, though at one time people had quite decided that they were perfectly deaf!

In addition to these little hearing holes, there are others called the “smell hollows”; they too are exceedingly numerous and minute. Each of the last eight joints of the worker bee’s antennæ is stated to have fifteen rows, and twenty smell hollows in each row! That is to say, there are over 2400 in each antenna. The queen has not quite so many, having, as a matter of fact, about 1600 on each; but the drone is possessed of the most of all, and his number reaches the astonishing figure of 37,000 hollows on each antenna. Every one of those hollows is a little nose, so that the bee’s power of smell must be very keen. What with the different kinds of hairs, so numerous and yet each with a separate nerve, the hearing holes, and lastly the smell hollows, you will, I feel sure, agree that the antennæ are most complicated, and you will understand why I call this chapter “The Wonderful Antennæ.”

CHAPTER VIII
THE EYES

THE same tiny head, which carries the marvelous antennæ, is provided with two large “compound” eyes, as they are called. If you are able to examine these eyes with a magnifying glass, you will at once see that they are lovely objects. The eye itself is of a deep purplish-black colour, and has an appearance which is rather difficult to describe. It seems almost as though it is covered with the finest satin, for it glistens in the sunlight.

The microscope shows that this appearance is due to the eye being composed of multitudes of six-sided cells, resembling, in fact, nothing so much as a piece of honeycomb. These cells are called facets, which means “little faces,” and each one measures about 1⁄1000th part of an inch in diameter. Over the surface of the eye are distributed numerous long, straight hairs; the chief purpose of these hairs is to protect the delicate facets, just as the eyelashes of our own eyes protect them. Bees have no eyelids, as we have, and so they have to rely upon these hairs to protect their eyes from dust and other such foreign bodies. The construction of the eye itself is wonderful to a degree, but it is also very difficult to understand, because it is so complicated and minute.

Each eye consists of a great number of facets, which are really smaller eyes, and this is the reason the eye is called compound. The eye of the worker contains over 6000 of them, and each one points in a slightly different direction. Large as this number may appear, it is less than half that possessed by the drone, whose facets actually number 13,000 in each eye. As a matter of interest, I may tell you that the queen bee has the least number of all, having but 5000. Each facet acts as a tiny lens. A lens, as you perhaps know, is something so shaped as to throw an image of the object to which it is directed. A camera has a lens of glass, and by the aid of this lens a picture can be taken of any object to which the camera is pointed. In that case the image of the object is thrown upon what is called a photographic plate. Our own eyes act as lenses, and throw an image of whatever we look at, not upon a photographic plate, but upon a sensitive surface called the retina. This word comes from the Latin, and means a “small net,” and it is a very good name, for the retina catches the picture from the pupil of the eye, and passes it on to the brain.

Although we might imagine that these compound eyes were sufficient for any purpose, yet we find that the bee has three more eyes; these are called the “simple” eyes. They are situated on the top of the head, and you may see one of them in (b) Plate VI. The other two are over the top of the head, for the three eyes are arranged in this manner ∵ so as to form a triangle. You will remember that the drone is furnished with a far greater number of facets than the worker. Consequently the compound eyes of the drone are much larger, and they not only take up the whole of the space at the sides of the head, but also extend right over the top, covering the position occupied by the simple eyes in the worker. Owing to this fact, the drone’s simple eyes are placed lower down, on the front of his head, their position corresponding pretty closely to the place our own eyes occupy. The simple eyes are so called because they do not seem to be nearly so complicated in their construction as the compound eyes, but the microscope shows that they also have an elaborate structure. If we were to cut open the front of a bee’s head, we should find that the simple eyes are set like this:—

You will notice that the two top ones (marked L. E. left eye and R. E. right eye) point in an outward direction, and it is by their aid that the bee can see sideways. The lower eye (F. E. front eye) is directed forwards, and with it things in front can be seen. The simple eyes are surrounded with tufts of hair (marked e. b. eyebrows), which are so placed that they do not interfere with the range of vision.