14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



(2) WITH EXPERIMENTS 



Duges (1838) was the first to experiment with the antennae of 

 insects. He cut off the antenme of two male (Bomhyx) Eudia 

 pavonia minor and then these insects were unable to find a female that 

 they had previously been able to locate while their antennae were 

 intact. Also, after having extirpated the antennae of many blow-flies, 

 (Mnsca) (Calliphora vomitoria) , and a large viviparous fly, Sarcoph- 

 aga carnaria, he ascertained that they were unable to find putrid meat 

 as before. He felt satisfied that olfaction resides in the antennae. 



Lefebvre ( 1838) was the first observer to experiment with a bee. 

 He placed a long needle, whose end had been plunged into ether, near 

 a piece of sugar which a bee was eating. The bee moved its antennre 

 towards the needle and then passed them several times between the 

 legs. He brought this needle near the legs and spiracles, and since 

 he noticed no response from these parts, he concluded that the anten- 

 nae are olfactory organs. As a control he used a needle without ether 

 in the same manner. Next he mutilated the antennae of several wasps 

 (Vespa). All their organs for perceiving odor stimuli seemed to be 

 at the extremity of these appendages. 



Kiister (1844) declares that bees have a very acute sense of smell. 

 He reports some that found a store of honey ; even a week after they 

 had carried away all the honey they still continued to come to the same 

 place in search of more food. Since vertebrates carry their olfactory 

 organs on the front of their head, under and between the eyes, he 

 tried by analogy to locate the corresponding organs of the bee on the 

 antennae. 



Ferris ( 1850) repeated Duges' experiment by holding many speci- 

 mens of dift'erent families and genera over the mouths of vials con- 

 taining alcohol, turpentine, or ether. At times he obtained the same 

 results as did Duges, at other times none at all, using- the same indi- 

 viduals after intervals of one-half hour ; but more often the antennae 

 or palpi exhibited more or less violent movement. He also repeated 

 the experiments of Huber on various insects by stopping up their 

 buccal cavities with wax, paste and gum. When they were set free 

 he did not notice any signs of inconvenience. By such experiments 

 he failed to locate the seat of the organs of smell in or near the mouth 

 as Huber did. After having placed a brush dipped in turpentine, 

 ether or wild thyme near the spiracles he concluded that odor-stimuli 

 are not received by the respiratory apparatus. 



In his summary Ferris says : ( i ) By amputating the extremity of 

 the antennae the olfactory sense is not destroyed but it is weakened. 



