1915.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 39 



ant has been long continued, highly skilled and very prolific, shows 

 these organs as a pit communicating with the external air by means 

 of a pore. They have been variously named. I suggest to myrme- 

 oologists the possibility that these vesicles found in groups or scattered 

 over the body and limbs of the ant may be the producers of the 

 odors borne by the insect, and I urge research among Forel's "inverted 

 flasks," the "pits and pegs," the "plates and pores," and all 

 papillae on the ant. 



Dr. N. E. Mclndoo, of the Bureau of Entomology at Washing-ton, 

 D. C, has issued two papers, one in April, 1914, The Olfactory Sense 

 of the Honeij Bee, and one in November, 1914, The Olfactory Sense of 

 Insects. I venture a few brief comments thereupon. 



Dr. Mclndoo quotes Dr. W. M. Wheeler's objection to my dis- 

 covery that "the olfactory organs of an animal may exhibit 'regional 

 differentiations.'" This objection, unsupported as it is by physio- 

 logical tests applied to the ant, should influence no investigator. 

 If there be error in the process of experimentation or flaw in the logic 

 of the deduction, the critic should indicate the point of departure 

 from a correct course. It is true that my statements are "unsup- 

 ported by other observers," but lack of support by other observers 

 is a misfortune that necessarily befalls the research worker who 

 makes the earliest observation. 



Dr. Mclndoo's iterated statement that his bees were "abnormal," 

 without definite indication of the cause or kind of abnormality, 

 gives no assistance in the formation of a sound judgment concerning 

 the changes due to mutilation. " Almormality " of some sort is a 

 natural consequent of mutilation. The question is whether a 

 certain abnormal condition invariably ensues from a particular 

 mutilation. 



In those cases where Dr. Mclndoo's surgical operations upon 

 his bees were performed by the pulling apart or the burning off of 

 segments, the lesions produced in the adjacent tissues must have 

 been such as to seriously affect the functions of the parts subject 

 to subsequent observation. 



The odors of the essential oils used in his experiments must have 

 been diffused through the air, and the reaction of the bees, normal 

 or abnormal, may in many cases have been due to the effect of the 

 odorous particles upon the trachea through the spiracles rather than 

 to their appeal to the sense of smell. 



Dr. Mclndoo's experiments and observations appear to me to be 

 confirmatory rather than contradictory of the view of most ento- 



