Evening star., 1918-02-03

two or three days in the open ar tno
workers are liable to suffer complete
loss of the hive odor. though they DO
not lose the individual odor.
Bee colonies are frequently dlvideo,
and on the third or fourth DAY aIter
this division the hive odors OF the Two
colonies are so entirely different that,
If one did not know, he would neNer
be convinced that SO short time pacn
these colonies were one Wots;;c WORKERS r.1,.
the two divisions are as antagonists
toward each other if they hao al
WAYS been separated.
Oddly enough, though the hive ooor OF
a stray wing bee always arouses hostIi-
ties IN a foreign hive, yet the door OF
strange queen bee they find singulariy
aoreeabie 1t is the unnfstakable hivo
odor that may cling to foreisn queen
which makes trouble for her. II sno
hos heen ont a sufficiently long time 10
have freed her coat from the nive ooos
there is considerable more hkeihood
of a welcome for her. Workers oiteh 90
NOT realize that their queen has left the
hive until she has been gone some tlmes
and this is because OF such thorousn
permeation Of the queen odor throusn
the hive After a while the queen QUOT
grows faint in the hive. and IL IS then
that the colony becomes aware OF tne'r
queens departure.
No animal, nor insect. with posslplS
the exception of the ant, has so pow
erful and highly developed a sense OF
smell as the bee. When the queen pee
flies away, followed by the pursuing
drOneS. Sne leaves ScehtSo N''' -
which she leads them.
The sense of sight in the honey oee
does not begin to be OF the same oIu.
of development. Numerous
ments have been conducted by entomoI~
ogists with the hope of proving den~
nitely many things relative to its sienes,
But they are still points on which thes0
scientists disagree, for instance. whetnS-
er or not the bee can distinguish color.
Some are inclined to believe they Gang
while others feel positive they cannot.
DR.. McIndoo thinks there is no ques-
tion but what they can, though prop~
N'' NV =; =
~
Can bee tell the shape of an obs
ject. whether it is round. square. rough
fat. etc? II has never been satisfactor-
ily proved that they can, though IT il
known that by their sense of touch they
can discriminate between shapes II tho
object is small. There is no doubt our
what bees can see great distances; put
it is impossible to prove how wel or
how clearly they can see. In their
hives the only need they have for their
ewes is to distinguish light from dark
ness: Outside Of the hives walls II IS
much more important. They begin to
use them the instant they leave the
hive, in hunting flowers. in mating and
in returning to their homes.
The auditory sense is more difficult tor
dispose Of Persons who work about an
apiary tell interesting tales about the
suueai of a worker These bees certain
~ voice a protest il they are pinched or
if they are trapped into small area
and cannot escape. 1t was believed for
a time that the workers produced these
sounds by means of their wings. so an
experirnenter clipped the wings. but the
worker continued to squeaL Queens are
said to pipe" These auditory sense
organs are thought to be in the head
near each antennae in the tibia orr
fourth segment of the legs and in the
fore plates of the antennae.
1t is not generally believed that beeSt
have a sense of direction, but rather
that they follow certain landmarks. 1
They are accurate barometers and know
when a thundershower is on the way,
Many psychologists insist that bees ares
merely reflex machines-that is. that
their actions are performed without
thought, in response to certain stimuli.
and are quite Involuntary. The en-
tomologist disagrees with the psycholo-
gist on this point Bees solve their owni
problems in case of emergencies with a
resourcefulnesS and initiative that
would indicate that they were anything
but reflex machines. For instance. il a
foreign body, say mouse, gets into the
hive and is stung to death. it is impos-
sible for the bees to carry the mouse
out and equally impossible to have its
decaying body in the hive. Their solu-
tion of the problem is to incase il with
their wax, and then it is hermeticafly
sealed to the floor of the hive. so there
are absolutely no ill effects from the
unlucky mouse.