George Dieffenbach, age 8, of Williamsport, PA
Do bees have ears?
There may be people on other worlds and it is fun to imagine what one of them is like. He might look like an octopus, a pixie or some character from Halloween. But, chances are, he is more like us than the insects right here at home. We share our world with these bitsy animals and most of the time we hardly notice them. Yet the countless different insects outnumber all the other animals on earth.
It is wonderful ‑to discover how each different insect makes a living and hands on life to its children. The bitsy creature has no bones and no teeth. He has six lags and a pair of mysterious feelers sprouting up from his forehead. He has two big eyes which cover most of his head, but you could not find his ears, even with a magnifying glass.
A few insects are deaf, but some of them can hear sounds too high for the human ear to hear. The fuzzy bee can hear very well and certain notes make her stop what she is doing and stay perfectly still. The bee‑keeper sometimes uses this fact to calm the hive when the busy family gets into a frantic frenzy. He paces a sound machine near the hive and sets it to a note which is about one and a half octaves above middle C. While this noise lasts, every bee is still and the frantic hive becomes calm.
Though most insects can hear, none of them have ears like ours. This does not surprise us, for only the mammals and human beings have shelllike outer ears on the side of their heads. The birds and frogs have inner ears somewhat like ours, but they are covered with skin instead of outer ears. The ears of the insects are even more simple ‑ and some of them are in the most unexpected places.
Mrs. Cricket listens to her chirping husband with a pair of ears in her front legs. Mrs. Grasshopper hears her sweetheart's song with a pair of large ears on her tummy, just below the waist. A few insects hear sounds with their antennae, the jointed feelers on top of the head. The ears of a bee, then, could be almost anywhere. The experts tell us that they are in her tiny legs and they are very sensitive. They are hidden in the joints of her dainty legs and covered over with a smooth layer of tough skin.
Mr. Mosquito listens to his buzzing wife with his antennae, the two feelers that sprout up from his forehead. Most insects use their sensitive antennae like delicate fingers to feel and touch. Some use these feelers to smell and some use them to taste. The bee uses her dainty antennae to touch and smell and also to tell colors. If the top eight sections are removed from her feelers, she can no longer tell blue from yellow. The cute little insect also uses her feelers to pat the babies and the many pets in the hive, to stroke and caress her sisters and her majesty, the queen.