Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-04-24
ARGUS OU'rPOlNTED.
AN lNsec. THAT is CREDITED WITH
THlETI-SiX THOUSAND EYES.


tcrcsting Natural History.
Thirty-six thousand eyes i'll one headl
This may appear little like eXaggera-
ton, but it is fact. Science, backed by
the microscope, says so, and science
never stretches the truth Should it do
SO il would cease to be a science
Argus WAS tabled to have hundred
eyes, but Argus would DO q very insig-
niticant curiosity compared with the
latest discovery in the insect kingdom.
There are numbers of insects with 100
and even 500 eyes, but when the num-
Der OF optics allotted to single insect
reaches up into the thousands the idea
is startling.
Naturalists have recently been engag-
ed i'll the study Of this most interesting
subject Each succeeding day brings
more marvellous results until tho as
founding discovery has been made that
the common dragon fly, or mosquito
hawk, while seemingly possessed Of
only two visual organs, really has as
many as Sc, 600, each of the two visible
to tho ordinary observer being subdivid-
cd into is, 900 separate lenses, each eye
let having distinct nerve connecting
it with the brain and acting entirely
independently of its myriads of COM
panions.
The theory most generally adopted
by scientists is that, while far superior
to the eve of higher animal life rs re-
CARDS moving objects, the power of OBJ
servation of tho composite eye is inferior
in its application 10 stationary things.
The reason is this: Tho moving object
is first observed by ono of tho thousands
of facets, which perceives it for the in
tinitcsimal part Of second thatit takes
to get ont of the arc of vision of that
particular lens and pass into that of an
other, each movement being separately
telegraphed to the brain by the facet on
duty. But with stationary object it is
different since for some reason the
minor organ fails TO focus accurately,
and so render the object less distinct
than when viewed by eyes of only one
lens each.
\ question which continues to puzzle
the scientists is whether the animal or
insect secs us many images of the objects
rs he has eyes, or facets. For instance,
does the dragon fly fancy he is fitting
over Sc, coo ponds or does he SEQ only
I one? Probably one, for tho two eyes of
Il human being in normal condition show
but single image Besides, apart from
the lenses and cones i'll front, the eye is
hollow sphere pierced by pcrforations
running down the facets toward the
center. 1t follows that the light impress
! sions thus form y single picture, or mo-
sale, as ii were, each facet presenting q
slightly different picture from its neigh
Dor and the group presenting perfect
whole
There are many other animals pos
sessed Of III extraordinary number OF
eyes. James Francis Stevens, q noted
cntomolocist, is said to have recorded
,. 200 such species in his garden i'll one
afternoon, while Francis Pascoe, anoth
er noted naturalist, counted 50 different
specimens on his library window.
The common scallop, for instance, has
many eyes scattered irrogularly over its
body. The lobster has massed together
in each orb more than hundred dis
tinct eyes, and, unlike human eyes,
these are set forward, instead of being
sunk inward. Does the poor lobster see
things hundredfold: Ii 50, possibly it
is in avoiding the SO imaginary lobster
pots that he stumbles into the real one.
The common house fly has 1000 eyes,
the cabbage butterfly Il, 900, the drono
fly 5000, the honeybee $500. But still
at the head of tie list stands the mos
quito hawk, or dragon fly, with his
36, 600. As his namo suggests, while
not despising any Of the smaller insects,
his specially is the mosquito. Indeed he
has so succeeded i'll terrorizing these lit
tie pests that his lifeless form still fills
them with alarm. IL localities where
mosquitoes are Troublesome an effectual
mode of Riding the place Of them con-
sists in suspending a dead dragon fly
from the ceiling by Il piece of thread.
Those who have tried it say that it has
never been known TO fail
Up to a certain point these multi
tudinous eyes may be compared to WIN
dows fitted with innumerable panes of
glass The pancs, however, are Of diff
ferent forms Some, like those of the
bee and the ant, are six sided, remind
ing US of the pattern so common i'll
Gothic architecture. Some, again, are
diamond shaped and others square.
Another interesting branch of this in
teresting subject is the study of the near
and far sighted insects. Johanna Null
ler long ago pointed out that the flight
of insects depends upon their power of
vision. This will account for the differ
ence i'll the flights of the common house
fly and the wasp. The one confines him
self to short flights. As his food is al
ways to be found within small area,
he flies in short curves and circles. But
the wasp is remarkably sharp sighted,
and the arrangement CT the lenses shows
that his line OF vision is decidedly for
ward. Here, again the dragon fly is pre-
eminent. He has well been called the
tyrant of the air. He alone is able to
take perfectly straight lines at enormous
speed for long distances, evidently see
ing we'll what is ahead of him.-New
Orleans Times-Demccrat.
Knew How.
Friend (in;.kin3 Il calD-You are not