Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1897-05-15
ARGUS OUTPOINTED.
AN INSECT THAT is CREDITED WITH
THlRTY-SlX THOUSAND EYES.

Scientists Have Made Some Wonderful Dis
coverics In This Line. but They Give the
Palm to the Common Dragon Fly-In-
teresting Natural History.
Thirty-siX thousand eyes in one hcadl
This may appear little like cxaggera-
ton, but it is fact Science, backed by
the microscope, says so, and science
never stretches the truth. Should it do
so it would cease to be a science.
Argus was tabled to have hundred
eyes, but Argus would be 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 cngag-
ed in the study of this most interesting
subject. Each succeeding day brings
more marvellous results until the 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 36, 600, each of the two visible
to the ordinary observer being subdivid-
ed 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 eye of higher animal life as re-
CARDS moving objects, the power of OBJ
servation of the composite eye is inferior
in its application to stationary things.
The reason is this: The moving object
is first observed by one of the thousands
| of facets, which perccives it for the in
finitcsimal part of second that it takes
to get out of tho 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 Il 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.
A question which continues to puzzle
the scientists is whether the animal or
insect sees as many images of the objects
| as he has eyes, or facets. For instance,
does the dragon fly fancy he is fitting
over 3G, 000 ponds, Or does he see only
one? Probably one, for the 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
a hollow sphere pierced by pcrforations
running down the facets toward the
center. 1t follows that the light impress
/ sions thus folm a single picture, or mo-
sale, as it were, each facet presenting a
slightly different picture from its neigh
Dor and the group presenting a perfect
whole.
There are many other animals pos
sesscd of an extraordinary number of
eyes. James Francis Stevens, noted
entomologist, is said to have recorded
1900 such species in his garden in one
afternoon, while Francis Pascoe, anoth-
er noted naturalist, counted 80 different
specimens on his library window.
The common scallop, for instance, has
+ many eyes scattered irregularly 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 a hundredfold? If so, possibly it
| is in avoiding the 80 imaginary lobster
pots that he stumbles into the real one
The common house fly has 1000 eyes,
the cabbage butterfly 1000, the drone
fly 5000, the honeybce $500. But still
at the head of the list stands the mos
quito hawk, or dragon fly, with his
$4,000. AS his name suggests, while
not dcspising any of the smaller insects,
his speciality is the mosquito. Indeed he
has so succeeded i'll terroriZing these lit
tie pests that his lifeless form still fills
them with alarm. In localities where
mosquitoes are troublesome an effectual
mode of ridding the place of them con-
sists i'll suspending dead dragon fly
from tho ceiling by a piece of thread.
Those who have tried it say that it has
never been known to fail.
Up to certain point these multi
dows fitted with innumerable panes Of
glass The panes, 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 in
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
Ter long ago pointed out that the flight
of insects depends upon their power of
vision. This will account for the differ
rnce III 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 a small area,
he flies i'll short curves and circles. But
the wasp is remarkably sharp sighted,
and the arrangement of 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 well what is ahead of him.-New
Orleans Times Democrat
Knew How.
Friend (making a call)-You are not
looking very robust. Do you enjoy good