Show AROUS OUT POINTED AN INSECT THAT IS CREDITED WITH THIRTY SIX THOUSAND EYES hade some wonderful discoveries co in till line but give the 1 to the common crapon fly in natural history thirty six thousand eyes in ono this may appear a little like tion but it is a fact science backed by tho microscope says so and science never stretches abo truth should it do it would caaso to bo a science argus was fabled to have a hundred eyes but argus would be a very insignificant ant curiosity compared with alio latest discovery in the insect kingdom there aro of insects with and even ayee but when the number of optics allotted to a single insect up into tho thousands the idea is startling naturalists have recently been engaged in the study of this most interesting subject each succeeding day brings more marvelous results until tho astounding toun ding discovery has been made that the common dragon fly or mosquito hawk while seemingly of only two visual organs really has as many as each of the two visible to the ordinary observer being subdivided into eo lenses each eyelet having a distinct nerve connecting it with the brain and acting independently of its myriads of companions pan ions the theory most generally adopted by is that whilo far superior to the eye animal life as regards moving objects the power of ob of the composite eye is inferior in its application to stationary things the reason ial this alio moving object is first observed by ono of the thousands of facets which perceives it for the infinitesimal part of a second eliat it takes to get out of tho anro of vision of that particular ecna and pass into that of another each movement being separately telegraphed to the brain by the facet on duty but with a stationary object it is different since for some reason the minor organ fails to focus accurately and render the object less distinct than when viewed by ayea of only one lens each A question which continues to puzzle the scientists is whether the animal or insect sees many images ct the objects as he has eyes or facets for instance does tho dragon fly fancy lio is flitting over ponds or dec ho aeo only one probably one for the two eyes of a human being in normal condition allow but a single imago besides apart from the lenses and cones iu front alio eye ia a hollow sphere pierced by perforations running down the facets toward the center it follows that the light impressions thus form a single picture or mosaic it were each facet presenting a slightly different picture from its neighbor and the group presenting a perfect whole there are many other animals of an extraordinary number of eye james francis stevana Stev cna a entomologist is said to have recorded 2000 such iu hia garden in one afternoon after while francis another noted naturalist counted 80 different specimens on hia library window tho scallop for instance baa many eyes scattered irregularly over its body the lobster lias massed together in each orb more than a hundred distinct eyes and unlike enman eyes aro set forward instead of being sunk inward docs the poor lobster seo bilings a hundredfold if eo possibly it is in avoiding tho 99 imaginary lobster pots that ho stumbles into tho real one tho common bouso fly has eye tho cabbage butterfly tho brono fly but still at the head of the list stands tho mosquito hawk or dragon fly with his As his bamo suggests while bot despising any of the smaller insects his specialty is tho mosquito indeed ho has so succeeded in terrorizing cheso little pests that his lifeless form still fills them with alarm in localities chero mosquitoes aro troublesome an effectual mode of ridding the place of them consists in suspending a dead dragon fly from tho ceiling by a piece of thread elioso who have tried it say that it has never been known to fail up to a certain point these multitudinous inous eyes may bo compared to windows fitted with innumerable panes of glass abo panes however are of different forms some like choso of the bee and the ant are six sided reminding us of the pattern common in gothic architecture some again are diamond shaped and others square another interesting branch of this in sting subject is the study of the near and far sighted insects johanna muller long ago pointed out that the flight of depends upon power of vision this will account tor the difference in the flights of the common house fly and the wasp tho one confines himself to short flights As his food is always to bo found within a small area he flies in short curves and circles but tho wasp ia remarkably sharp sighted and the arrangement of the lenses shows that his line of vision is decidedly forward here again tho dragon fly is preeminent ho has well been called the tyrant of the air ho alone is able to take perfectly straight lines at enormous speed for long distances evidently seeing well what is ahead of him new orleans times democrat |