SCENT LANGUAGE OF HONEY BEES — RIBBANDS 



371 



day a group of 50 bees from colony A are trained to collect sugar 

 solution from dish a, and the thoraces of these bees are daubed with 

 white paint ; during this day colony B is not allowed to fly, and dish 

 b is kept empty. 



On the second day colony A is not allowed to fly and dish a is empty, 

 while 50 bees from colony B are trained to collect sugar syrup from 

 dish h, and their thoraces are marked with blue paint. 



Figure 1. — Apparatus for studying the attraction of companions. The two glass dishes 

 are surrounded by a brood chamber and separated by a nucleus box. 



As soon as the group of bees from colony B have been marked, 

 colony A is also allowed to fly. Both dishes are now filled with sugar 

 solution. For a period all unmarked bees coming to either dish 

 are killed and ignored, until similar numbers of the marked bees 

 from both colonies are seen to be foraging from their respective dishes. 

 From this time on all unmarked newcomers are marked with the 

 same two colors, according to the dish that they visit, but now the 

 daubs of paint are put on their abdomens, so that they can be distin- 

 guished from the guides which were marked previously. 



When about a hundred newcomers have been marked in this way 

 the experiment is stopped. At the end of that day the two colonies 

 of bees are opened, and all the marked bees inside them are killed 

 and recorded. It is then found that most of the newcomers from 

 colony A have visited dish a, at which their hive companions foraged, 

 whereas most of those from colony B went to dish b. 



This experiment, which we have repeated at Rothamsted many 

 times, has demonstrated that when hive mates and bees from another 

 colony are foraging in similar numbers from nearby dishes that con- 

 tain exactly the same food supply, the hive mates are much more 

 attractive than the strange bees, so that one must conclude that the 

 hive mates are recognized in some way. 



