The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-10-20
Frederick Haskin' S LefterI
Insects and Their Senses
w.shinstaa, D: c. Oct ls.-pid j insects

insects. Some moths. for instance
attract mates from miles away
DR.. Mclpdoo carried $50 Promo.
thea cocoons from Massachusett.
to small islands Of the Florida kew
The moths were then sOfficientlr
far from their regional home. n.
doctor figured. so that no oths,
specimens would interfere with NJ.
observations. The female moth,
were kept in glass jars, some ,turn.
ed upside down on the sand Ana
some with netting over the ton
The males were released at ysr.
ious distances. They quickly found
their way to the females in the iar.
covered with netting, but mona
came to the jars with mouths bur.
led in the sand.
AS the females in all the iar
were equally visible, Dir. Mcfndoo
found it reasonable to believe th,t
sight had little or nothing 10 IN
with the attraction of the mals
moth to the female. He believes
that emanations passed away from
the jars whose mouths were Gov.
cred with netting and that these
emanations were sensed in some
way by the male moths. As deli.
cate odors could not escape througb
the Jars with mouths in the sand
the signals from these lara var.
disregarded.
Various Ant Odors.
To support his theory that the
olfactory sense dominates in insect
life, DR.. McIndoo brings the eyi.
dence of other scientists. Wheeler
he says, fouIN that different spe.
cies of ants have different odors
that can be distinguished, even BY
the feeble nose of human being
The odor of one species is descriS-
ed as being pungent and ethereal:
two others are smoky: others are
Hike rotten cocoanuts; and still an
other species of ant has smell
reminiscent of lemon geranium.
! ANOTHER scientist, Miss Fields,
thinks that the mother ant trans.
mits q family ordor to all of her
offspring, and she says that ants
can dif1erentiate the innate odOrs
peculiar to the species, sex, caste,
and individual, and also the acquir-
ed odor of the nest and environ
ment.
Each ant, she claims, has three
doors: % a scent deposited by her
feet, forming an individual trail
whereby she traces her own steps;
(2) an inherent" and inherited
| odor, manifested over her whole
body, IDENTICAL. in quality for
queens and workers of the SAINT
lineage, and a means for the recos.
milton of blood relations; and 81
a nest odOr, consisting Of the com
mingled odors Of all the members
of the colony and used to distin
guish their nest from those b
aliens.
Besides all this, Miss Fields putt
forth the theory that ants can eyei
detect progressive Odors due Y
change Of psychological conditioI
with the age of the individual adt
A human being can dimly und9
stand this specialized use Of tn
sense of smell. With his dulled 0!
factory organs he can, it has beel
pointed out, make the crude dil
tinction between horse and a Gov
or a cat and dog. By finer wofl
a scientist discovers that dronel
workers and queens in a hive al
have peculiar odors that a huma
nose can only learn to distinguish
and that lighter odors about whic
man can only speculate must guild
the actions of insects at astoundln
distances.
In fact, Mr.. McIndoo believes tina
the world of such insects as the an
and bee is not only world OF Cd
ors but that the olfactory sense
SO important.to them that they car
not exist if it is Destroyed. Yet ma
thinks his sense of smell is acut
when he can distinguish blindfold
ed between an onion and a viole