546 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 8 



hive odor and the queen odor, and following the guidance of instinct, 

 a colony of bees perhaps could not want a better ruler. 



Some of the foregoing statements are not conclusively proved, but 

 as a whole they are probably not far from the truth. Here is one of 

 the many openings in our scientific endeavors where a young, en- 

 thusiastic investigator, with the wisdom of a Sojomon, can aid us 

 wonderfully. Let him prove to us beyond a doubt that there are 

 individual odors among bees, separate the individual odor from the 

 hive odor and the family odor, analyze it in every way possible, 

 and tell us all about its functions. " Very well," the young scientist 

 wijl naturally say, but he will also doubtless come back asking, 

 " How can it be separated from these other odors when it is already 

 a part of them and is even their foundation " ? That perplexing 

 and seemingly baffling task we leave to the young scientist. 



(B) VON FRISCH's "language" OF BEES IS USED IN FOOD GETTING 



(1) The round dance is a means of coniinumcation for sugar- 

 water collectors. — Von Frisch, a professor of zoology in Germany, 

 tells us that dancing among bees is almost as common as it is among 

 people, and the same kinds of emotions are perhaps expressed in 

 them as in us; that is, emotions of joy and gladness, with the body 

 keyed up to the highest point of elation and overflowing with 

 happiness. People dance to music, and the dance expresses jlittle 

 outside of an exalted state of happiness; bees, so far as we know, 

 do not dance to music, but probably besides expressing high elation 

 their dance has a life significance to them by informing the attending 

 bees that food is near at hand and now is the time to secure it. And 

 those who have closely studied the lives of bees know that they 

 seem happiest when they are hard at work collecting their winter 

 stores. 



Further, we are informed that dancing among bees has been known 

 for a long time, although no one hitherto has studied their dances 

 sufficiently to interpret their meaning. At Jast Von Frisch believes 

 that he has solved their mysteries in part if not entirely. As early 

 as 1823 Unhoch wrote about bees dancing, but Unhoch's bee ballet 

 was preceded by the observations of Spitzner in 1788, 35 years 

 earlier. 



When a scout bee has once found a supply of food, how does she 

 communicate this information to her hive mates? The old theory, 

 which until recently was prett}^ generally accepted by authorities 

 on bees, was that the scout returned to her home, told the other bees 

 about her wonderful discovery, and then led a party of them to the 

 food. We are not told how the scout informed her hive mates; in 

 fact, all the details are missing; the imagination is thus allowed to 

 exert itself to various degrees, depending upon the ability of the 



