OLFACTORY SENSE OF THE HONEY BEE 



317 



This variation is nearly the same for workers and drones, but is 

 much greater for the queens. 



As a rule, any group contains at least a few more pores on the 

 drone than on the worker or the queen, and the trochanters of 

 the drone possess many more pores than do those of the queen 

 and several more than do those of the worker. Nevertheless, 

 since a drone has no sting and consequently lacks the organs 

 belonging to it, the total number of pores is correspondingly 

 lessened. The individual variations for the total number of pores 

 of all three castes are slight. 



The number of pores for each group on the wings for the three 

 castes varies, while on the legs of all three castes the total num- 

 ber of pores is relatively constant. In all three the size of the 

 groups and even the dimensions of the pores are relatively the 

 same. Hence, since drones have the most pores and the queens 

 the least, the pores in the former are the most densely grouped 

 and those of the queens the least. 



The following table shows the average number of olfactory 

 pores on all four wings, on all six legs, and on the sting of the 

 three castes of the honey bee and also the average total number 

 of pores for each class. 



TABLE 1 

 Average number of olfactory pores on the wings, legs and sting of the honey bee 



Since the queen possesses an average of 1860 pores, the worker 

 an average of 2268, and the drone an average of 2604, it seems 

 probable that whatever function they perform this is best de- 

 veloped in the drone and least in the queen, in proportion to the 

 average number of pores. 



Various kinds of sense organs exist on the antennae and mouth 

 parts of the bee. Neither the external appearance nor the inter- 

 nal structure of any of the antennal organs has the slightest 



