544 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



F) and wax generators (H) is much less pronounced than is the 

 odor from old workers. 



Workers just emerged from the celjs have a faint, sweetish odor, 

 but lack the characteristic bee odor, and workers removed from 

 the cells just before they begin cutting their way out emit a still 

 fainter sweetish odor. 



Old queens have a strong, sweetish odor, while the odor from 

 queens just emerged from their cells is much less pronounced. The 

 queen odor is very pleasant, and is as characteristic of queens as is 

 the bee odor of workers. 



The majority of old drones have a faint odor, wliije every young 

 drone has a stronger odor. This odor is slightly different from that 

 of young workers and is less sweetish. 



From statements that have been made it is evident that bees emit 

 various odors, but if nothing more than the few observations men- 

 tioned could be recorded our story would end almost before it begins. 

 We do not, however, have to build up our story on what we humans 

 can detect with our poorly develoj^ed noses, because the activities of 

 bees speak, as it were, a language, definite and infallible although 

 foreign to us, which when correctly interpreted and recorded in oui 

 own language goes a long way to solve the mj^stery surrounding the 

 communication between social insects. 



By means of speciall}^ devised experiments the writer proved 

 that the bees themselves can distinguish a much greater variety of 

 smells than those heretofore enumerated, and that these play a most 

 important part in their lives. 



It is certain that a queen gives off an odor, and it seems reasonable 

 to suppose that the odors from any two queens would be slightly 

 different. All the offspring of the same queen seem to inherit a 

 particular odor from her, called the family odor, which perhaps 

 plays little or no part in the lives of bees, for it is certainly masked 

 by the other odors. Drones seem to emit an odor peculiar to their 

 sex, but little is definitely known about it. Apparently each worker 

 emits an individual odor which is different from that of any 

 other worker, and it is probable that the wax generators and nurse 

 bees emit odors slightly different from those of the field bees. 



Of all the odors produced by bees the hive odor is probably the 

 most important. It seems to be the fundamental factor upon wliich 

 the social life of a colony of bees depends, and perhaps upon which 

 the social habit was acquired; without it a colony of bees could not 

 exist. The hive odor is composed chiefly of the individaul odors from 

 all the workers in a hive, and is supplemented by the odors from the 

 queen, drones, combs, frames, walls of the hive, and still other 

 sources. From this definition it is easily understood why no two 

 colonies have the same hive odor. The hive odor of a queenless colony 



