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Eyes, Antenne, and Brain: Cheshire

On the lower, outer part of the last six or seven joints, and more abundant towards the end of the antennæ, are microscopic circular depressions which are believed to be organs of hearing, earopenings, so to speak. Besides the special organs already noticed, there are what Cheshire calls the "smell hollows."

These are oval in form, larger and far more numerous than the ear-holes, and are found between the touch hairs on the front of the last eight joints of the antennæ. There is the amazing number of 2400 of these oval depressions on each antenna, which well accounts for the very acute sense of smell which bees undoubtedly possess.

These little antennæ are only about of an inch long, and their lower specialized portion is only of an inch long in the worker bee, and to of an inch in diameter, yet this lower part is possessed of thousands of highly specialized sense-organs.

That bees hear has been a matter of faith from the time of Aristotle, and, after having been denied in very scientific and learned terms in recent times, is now again an accepted belief. They do hear. Or at least they possess a sense equivalent to what in us is hearing.