THE HEAD
Just as the head of an animal is the most important part of its body,
so too is it in the case of an insect.
A bee’s head, as seen with the aid of a microscope, looks very
peculiar, but nevertheless it is exceedingly interesting. A photograph
of it is shown (_b_) on Plate VI. The head is something like a split
pea in shape, with the rounded part turned to the front; it is joined
to the thorax by a thin neck.
The bee has five eyes, two compound and three simple. The compound
eyes are placed one on each side of the head, like the eyes of the
house-fly, and the simple eyes are to be found on the top of the head.
In Plate VII. the position of the eyes is shown, but only one of the
simple eyes is to be seen. In addition to the eyes, the head carries
the antennæ, which are two in number, and the whole of the head is
covered with a multitude of tiny hairs of a light golden colour.
The bee has, of course, a brain in the proper sense of the word; it
is, however, very minute, though all the more wonderful for being so.
The nervous system consists of a number of “nerve centres,” which
are situated in the body. The chief nerve centre, or _ganglion_ as
it is called, is in the head, and from this point multitudes of
nerves run to all parts of the body. The word ganglion comes from
the Greek, and means a knot, and it is really a knot of nerves. The
nerves resemble underground telegraph wires, which perhaps you have
seen; and like them, they run in bundles, which in turn are enclosed
in a pipe or sheath. Each telegraph wire sends a message to some part
of the country, and the nerves of the bee, in like manner, transmit
messages to different parts of its body. Other ganglia are situated
in the thorax and in the abdomen, but the largest one is, as I have
said, in the head. You will easily understand from this, that the
ganglia are almost like little brains, distributed in the body of the
bee. Now here is a most remarkable fact, but perfectly simple when you
understand what I have just told you. Sometimes a bee may have a fight
with another bee, and perhaps she will be unfortunate enough to have
her head cut off. You might imagine that this would be at once fatal to
the bee, but it is not so. She is still able to walk about the hive in
quite an important fashion! Of course she cannot see, nor can she feel
her way about with her antennæ, and she is therefore of no use. Soon
she will die, but the fact remains that a bee can live for a time even
when its head is cut off. In the same way, if a bee is feeding on honey
and her abdomen is cut off at the waist, she will still go on sucking
up the honey, in blissful ignorance of the fact that her body has been
cut in half! Then if the abdomen is picked up and placed in the palm of
the hand, it will probably start twisting round, in the attempt to bury
its sting in the flesh!