292 N. E. McINDOO 



These were apparently normal in other respects, but when tested 

 with 6 of the 10 odors used in these experiments they gave an 

 average reaction time of 3.16 seconds, whereas the average for 

 the same odors with unmutilated drones was 2.9 seconds. 



Ninety middle-aged bees with both antennae pulled off were 

 placed on the combs of the observation hive at 4 o'clock in the 

 afternoon. To prevent them from flying from the hive, their 

 right wings were clipped. These bees were more restless than 

 normal bees. They wandered about and continually crawled 

 out of the hive. Whenever one was found outside the hive it 

 was put back, although all of them eventually escaped in this 

 way, because two days later not one of them, either alive or dead, 

 was found in the hive. The behavior of these mutilated bees 

 was similar to that of the antenna-less bees in the observation 

 cases. They took no part in the activities of the hive and ap- 

 peared to have lost all means of communicating with the other 

 bees. The next day at various hours 16 of them were found 

 dead in front of the hive. The third day at 8 o'clock 3 more 

 were found, and on the fourth day at 4 o'clock one more. 

 In three days 20 were found dead, while the other 70 certainly 

 crawled out of the hive and escaped. Counting the time until 

 their dead bodies were found, these 20 liv-ed on an average only 

 21 hours, while in the observation cases the average length of 

 life of such bees was 19 hours. From these combined results it 

 is evident that bees with their antennae pulled off are not nor- 

 mal and therefore whatever results are obtained by experiment- 

 ing with them must always be discounted. 



Immediately after pulling off both antennae of a worker, it was 

 placed on a comb with the other bees in the observation hive. 

 A small piece of cotton wet with oil of peppermint was held ^ 

 inch in front of this antenna-less bee, and afterward smoke from a 

 bee keeper's smoker was gently blown on it. In performing these 

 experiments with 10 different workers, not a single mutilated bee 

 reacted in the least, whereas all the other bees soon fled from the 

 oil of peppermint and caused an uproar by rapidly vibrating their 

 wings when smoke was gently blown on them. Similar experi- 

 ments were performed, by using oil of thyme, clove, wintergreen. 



