The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-21
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC ,. HAsKnN. DtrecsOE,
Washington. d. O
INSECTS AND THEIR SENSES.


you ever imagine what the woTld re-
sembles to a bee or an ant? Putting
yourself in an insects place is not
Just a matter of picturing your nor
NAL self reduced a million or so times
and walking about seeing crumbs as
Ioayes of bread and Jumps in the car
pet as mountains. You must build up
a new world, one that is more fan
tastic than H. sG.aWells' idea of Mars.
And even then a human being can
have only dim conception or what
life would be if he had six legs and
depended on his sense of eIpell more
than his eyes to tell him what the
world is like.
If you fancy yourself a worker in
the bee world, for example, you must
neighbors by their distinctive odor.
Family resemblance in the social
order of bees is a matter OF a hive and
family odor rather than OF peculiar
, appearance.
When you returned home after a
long journey in search OF nectar the
sentinel at the door would know you
by the odor of the hive which you
carried. If by some mishap you be-
came lost or injured and did not re-
turn to the hive for several days the
hive odor would gradually become
faint and when you arrived the guar
dian of the door would sound the
warning that a stranger was trying to
break in. The result would be
tragic ending of your useful career
AS honey bee you would have an
intense passion for sweet things, and
if a scientist got you in his power and
put you to work in his experiments
you would show him that bee can
not be fooled by bitter salts in candy.
You would be a connoisseur to the
extent of recognizing the difference
between candy containing strychnine
vta0
the scientist himself could not de-
tect any difference in taste.
These random glimpses of life in
an insects world are gathered from
the experiments of DR.. N. E. Mclndoo
of the Bureau of Entomology. DR..
McIndoo recently has published a
paper on the senses of insects in
which he explains his latest observa-
lions and conclusions. especially those
relating to the olfactory sense.
Insects Have a New Science.
"In regard to odors,'' he says, Gin
sects have already evolved a new
science and are capable of classifying
and analyzing doors, many of which
are unknown to us. Furthermore,
they have evolved special organs for
producing doors and highly developed
ones for receiving them. In fact, the
olfactory sense of insects, particularly
in the honeybee is so highly developed
that we do not have any more con-
ception of it than does the honeybee
(if it could think as we dob of our
wonderfully developed sense of sight,
which is able to distinguish accurately
the size, form, and color of objects"
Science for centuries has puzzled
over mysteries of animal life and won
dered how some of the tiny creatures
are unerringly guided to their mates,
to food, and to their homes. 1t was
gavIaf TAIo q
minor part in insect life. Some scien-
lists attribute the remarkable feats
| of insects to instinct and others be-
| lieve that strange occult powers guide
them. Still other entomologists are
persuaded that one of the five senses,
highly developed, must rule insect
activities as sight rules human life.
DR.. McIndoo believes that keen
olfactory sense accounts for much OF
! the extraordinary behavior of insects
Some moths, for instance, attract
mates from miles away.
DR.. McIndoe carried $50 Promethea
coeoons from Massachusetts to small
islands of the Florida Keys. The
moths were then sufficiently far from
their regional home, the doctor fig
ured, SO that no other specimens
would interfere with his observations
The female moths were kept in glass
| jars. some turned upside down on the
| top.
The males were released at various
distances. They quickly found their
| way to the females in the jars covered
with netting, but none came to the
| Jars with mouths buried in the sand
As the females in all the jars were
equally visible, DR.. NJ ,Indoo found il
reasonable to believe that sight had
| little or nothing to do with the at
| traction of the male moth to the fe-
male. He believes that emanations
| were sensed in some way by the male
moths. AS delicate doors could not
escape thru the Jars with mouths in
| the sand, the signals from these jars
were disregarded.
| Various Ant Odors.
| To support his theory that the OIL
| factory sense dominates in insect life
DIR. McIndoo brings the evidence OF
| other scientists. Wheeler, he says
have different odors that can be dis
! tinguished even by the feeble nose OF
a human being. The odor CT ono
species is described as being pungent
| and ethereal; two others are smoky
| others are like rotten cocoanuts; an6
| still another species of ant has a smell
reminiscent of lemon geranium.
Another scientist, Miss Fielde
4 thinks that the mother ant transmits
a family odor to all of her offspring
/ and she says that ants can differen'
| tiate the innate odors peculiar to the
| species, sex, caste, and individual, anc
also the acquired odor Of the nest and
environment.
Each ant, she claims has three
odors: % a scent deposited by hel
feet, forming an individual trail
whereby she traces her own steps
CD an inherent and inherited odor
manifested over her whole body
identical in quality for queens anC
workers of the same lineage, and 1
means for the recognition of blood re
lations; and ca a nest odor, consist
ing of the commingled doors of al
the members of the colony and uset
to distinguish their nest from thos
of aliens.
Besides all this, Miss Fielde put
forth the theory that ants can evel
detect progressive odors due to chang
Of psychological condition with tn
age of the individual ant.
A human being can dimly under