2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



names of the various writers and their views are grouped under heads 

 according to the seat of the olfactory organs which these writers 

 favor. A few writers fail to advocate any particular view but they 

 criticize certain ones. Such writers are placed under the head which 

 they criticize. 



This discussion was originally written as the second part of the 

 author's (1914a) paper on " The Olfactory Sense of the Honey Bee." 

 On account of the great length of this paper it was necessary to omit 

 the discussion. Since the first part of the paper was published a few 

 more references have been collected and the author (1914b) has 

 written a second paper on the same subject concerning the Hymenop- 

 tera. Several letters have also been received requesting that a com- 

 plete discussion be published. Another reason for publishing this 

 discussion is to reveal the chaos which now exists on this subject, 

 so that students may hereafter replace such chaos by facts. 



The author is grateful in various ways to Dr. E. F. Phillips, in 

 charge of bee culture investigations, and to Miss Mabel Colcord. 

 librarian of the Bureau of Entomology, for invaluable aid in securing 

 references. 



SENSE OF SMELL IN GENERAL 



Aristotle is the earliest author whose writings on the sense of 

 smell in insects are available. He says : 



As for insects, both winged and wingless, they can detect the presence of 

 scented objects afar off, as for instance bees and cnipes detect the presence of 

 honey at a distance ; and they do so recognizing it by smell. Many insects are 

 killed by the odor of brimstone ; ants, if the apertures to their dwellings be 

 smeared with powdered origanum and brimstone, quit their nests ; and most 

 insects may be banished with burnt hart's horn, or by burning of gum styrax. 



Virgil was a beekeeper as well as a poet. The ancients used roasted 

 or burnt crabs in the treatment of certain bee diseases, but Virgil 

 warned beekeepers that the odors arising from such materials are 

 injurious to bees. He also reports that certain strongly scented 

 plants were rubbed on the tree where a swarm of bees was collecting, 

 so that these odors might prevent them from going farther. 



I'liny states that the odors of origanum, of common lime, and of 

 sulphur kill ants. Giiats hunt for acids and do not approach things 

 which are sweet. 



Varro ( 1/35) infers that bees can distinguish odors, and that they 

 are sensitive to perfumes which come from odoriferous objects ; in 

 this respect their preferences dififer greatly. 



