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Eyes, Antenne, and Brain

SOMETIMES bees fly several miles in search of flowers. Upon leaving the hive, they ascend high in the air as if to get their bearings, then they are off, zigzagging as fast as they can to the objects of their desire, for they do not fly in a straight line but continually curve from side to side. There is little doubt that the eye directs these distant flights, and that the bee sees the shine of the flower fields much farther away than man could distinguish them.

Certainly the bee is abundantly supplied with visual organs. On either side of the head are the two large compound eyes, each, in the worker, being composed of more than six thousand simple eyes or facets.

There has been a good deal of speculation as to how this astonishing supply of eyes can be used without breeding confusion in the mind of their possessor. It used to be affirmed that each facet gave a separate image of that portion of the landscape directly in front of it, and that the union of these fragments made an unbroken whole; but to-day the balance of opinion is in favor of an unbroken image for each separate facet, and the final reconciliation of the ensuing chaos is believed to be accomplished by the blending of all the images into one, as our own two eyes give the impression of but one image.