The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1923-01-04
- INSECTS
Scientists Say 0Ifactory Powers
Of Bees and Ants Are Past
Comprehension.
HAVE EVOLVED new SCIENCE
Clears Up Some Of the Mysteries That
Have Puzzled Scientists Ter o<b-
turBss-Makes Expsbment
With MofiiA

| ~ WaShingtOn.--11d you ever imagine
what the world resembles to bee
! or an anti Putting yourself In an
insects place is not just matter S1
! picturing your normal self reduced a
million or so times and walking about
seeing crumbs as loaves of bread and
Jumps In the carpet as mountains.
II you fancy yourself worker Ia
the bea world, for example, you must
imagine yourself recognising hive
neighbors by their distinctive edof.
Family. resemblance In the social or
der Of bees IL matter Of hive and
family odor rather than Of peculiar
appearance.
| When you returned home after 3
l0ng 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
guardian of the door weuld sound the
warning that a stranger was trying
to break In. The result would be
tragic ending of your useful career.
AS a honey bee you would have
intense passion for sweet things, and
IL scientist got you In his power and
put you to work in his experiments
you would show him that bee cam
not be fooled by bitter salts in candy.
70 te. nv
tent Of recognizing the difference be-
tween candy containing strychnine
and candy containing quinine when
the scientist himself could not detect
any difference in taste.
These random glimpses of life In an
Insects world are gathered from the
experiments Of DR.. N. q. McIndoO Of
the bureau of entomology. Doctor
McIndoo recently has published pa
per on the senses Of insects In which
he explains his latest observations and
conclusions, especially those relating
to the olfactory sense.
Insects Have New Science.
'In regard to odors," he says, Fin
sects have already evolved new
science and are capable of classify
ing and analysing odors, many OF
which are unknown to US. Further
more, they have evolved special Or
gans for producing odors 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 conception of 1t than does
the honeybee (lf 1t could think as we
do) of our wonderfully developed
sense of sight, which Is able to distfn-
guish accurately the size, form, and
color of insects
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. It was
proved long ago that sight plays a
minor part In, insect life, Some scien-
lists attribute the remarkable feats OF
insects to instinct and others believe
that strange occult powers guide them
gan other entomologists are persuad-
ed that that one of the i've senses.
highly developed, must rule insect &C
tiyities as sight rules human life.
Made Careful Observations.
Doctor McIndoo carried $50 Prone
thea cocoons from Massachusetts, to
small islands of the Florida Keys.
YAe meths were then sufficiently far
from their regional home, the doctor
figured, 50 that no other specimens
would interfere with his observa-
items. The female moths we're Kept
IA glass Jars, some turned upside
down on the sand, and some with net
ting over the top.
The males were released at various
distances. They quickly found their
way to the females In the jars COW
cred with netting. but none came to
fans with mouths buried in the sand.
AS the females in all the jars were
equally visible, Doctor McIndOo found
II reasonable to believe that sight
had little or nothing to do with the
attraction Of the male moth to the
female. Ee believes that emanations
passed away from the Jars whose I
mouths were covered with netting and
that these emanations were sensed In
some way by the male moths. As dell
cate odors could not escape through
the lars with mouths in the sand, the /
signals from these jars were disre-
garded.
To support his theory that the Oh
factory sense dominates in insect Ire
Doctor McIndoo brings the evidence
Of other scientists. Wheeler, he says.
found that different species Of ants
have different odors that can be dis
tinguished even by the feeble nose
of a human being. The odor OF one
species is described as being pungent
and ethereal; two others are smoky;
Others are like rotten coconuts; and
still another species of ant has
smell reminiscent of lemon geranium-
Another scientist. Miss Fields |
thinks that the mother ant transmits
family odor to all Of her offspring,
and uha saws that ants can QifIeren- l.