Why are the eyes of certain insects termed compound?
Because they consist of an aggregation of smaller eyes, or those which are termed simple; for their general convexity is divided into one immense number of small hexagonal or six-sided convex surfaces, which may be considered cornea. Simple eyes are formed in the larvae of many winged insects, which upon their last or complete metamorphosis, at the same time that they receive their wings, gain the large compound eyes. The late Mr. T. Carpenter, the optician, of Regent-street, paid more attention to this branch of entomology than any man of his time. By aid of a powerful microscope, he experimented upon upwards of 200 insects; the most familiar of which were the boat-fly, dragon-fly, ant, gnat, bee, wasp, ichneumon, cockchafler, peach-fly, earwig, grasshopper, locust, cricket, and cockroach. His results were a conviction that the whole of these insects did really possess numerous and distinct eyes, varying in number according to the species of insect; in some, upwards of 40 – in others,
