56 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



they not also in the females? Since these two structures are few 

 in number and many times smaller than the pegs, we cannot compare 

 them physiologically. Thus it is seen that not one of these antennal 

 organs of the honey bee offers a solution for the ratios obtained with 

 the use of the various odors. If the reaction time of each caste of 

 the honey bee is compared with the total number of olfactory pores 

 •a consistent inverse ratio is obtained. A drone has 2,600 pores and 

 responds in 2.9 seconds ; a worker possesses 2,200 pores and re- 

 sponds in 3.4 seconds and a queen has 1,800 pores and responds in 

 4.9 seconds. 



Pore plates are not the olfactory apparatus in all insects, because 

 they are entirely absent in the Lepidoptera. The pegs cannot be 

 the olfactory organs in all insects, for they are absent in many male 

 bees and almost wanting in Lepidoptera, although possibly the end 

 rods in butterflies and moths are homologous. According to Vom 

 Rath, pegs are found not only on the antennae and mouth parts 

 but also all over the body, and Nagel found them elsewhere than on 

 the antennae. If the pegs are the olfactory organs and if insects 

 with amputated antennae are normal, then why do not such insects 

 respond positively at least slightly to odors instead of negatively, 

 as most observers claim? 



It is certain that spiders can smell, yet they have no antennae 

 nor any organs that may be compared to the antennal organs of 

 insects. Hence, this is another argument against the antennae as 

 being organs of smell. All insects either have antennal organs like 

 those described for the bee, or modifications of them, yet no two 

 authors who have studied them have agreed concerning their func- 

 tion. Such chaos can be replaced by facts, only when the behavior 

 of the insects investigated is thoroughly studied and when experi- 

 ments are performed in ways other than on the antennae alone. Then 

 it will be realized that the antennae can no longer be regarded even 

 as a possible seat of the sense of smell in insects. 



In conclusion, it seems that the organs called the olfactory pores 

 by the author are the true olfactory apparatus in Hymenoptera and 

 possibly in all insects and that the antennae play no part in receiving 

 odor stimuli. 



LITERATURE CITED 



The authors marked with an * were not accessible to the writer, and their 

 views are cited from the writings of others. 



^LiANi. 1744. De Animalibus, quse Apibus inimica sunt. Natura Animalium, 

 Londini, t. 1, Lib. I, Cap. 58; p. 60. 



