Vol. XXI, pp. 137-140 June 9, 1908 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



SMELL THE DOMINANT SENSE IN DIABROTICA 

 12- PUNCTATA AND UMAX MAXIMUS. 



BY ROBERT E. C. STEARNS. 



The extraordinary acuteness of the sense of smell exhibited 

 in many of the lower animals has been known so long that it 

 is unnecessary to more than mention it. I recall numerous 

 examples illustrating the extreme development of this sense as 

 recorded in the literature, among the insects, the Lepidoptera* 

 especially, and in the Mollitscaf in both marine and terrestrial 

 species. 



The following instances observed by me are not without 

 interest, and worthy of notice, being of practical value. 



The first occurred half a century ago, being one of various 

 experiments of an agricultural character on my homestead 

 acres, known as Claybrook in Norfolk County, Mass., in 1857-8. 



In the spring of these years cucumber seed was planted on 

 about half an acre, divided into two flats of nearly equal area 

 by a roadway about ten feet wide. When the seed in the 

 easterly plot had germinated and the first leaves began to peep 

 above the ground the plants were protected by wooden frames 

 twelve inches by twelve inches in size made of ordinary inch- 

 thick boards. These frames were simply a box without a bot- 

 tom, six inches in depth, the top covered with common mos- 

 quito netting. On the opposite or westerly side of the drive- 

 way, early peas were planted in rows, the rows being four feet 

 apart. When the peas were four or five inches high the 

 cucumber seed was planted in the space between every second 



* Science Gossip, London, Hardwicke; various volumes. 



tThe Cambridge Natural History, Vol. Ill, Mollusca, pp. 192-196 and elsewhere, 

 is— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash.. Vol. XXI, 1908. (137) 



