3000 THE JOINTED ANIMALS 



WASPS AND BEES 



Before taking into consideration the families into which these groups are 

 divided, it is advisable to give an account of some points connected with their 

 habits, as well as a notice of their special senses. As regards sight, the large size 

 of their compound eyes, in addition to the presence of ocelli, indicates their high 

 degree of visual power. In respect of perception of colors, experiments have shown 

 that if honey be placed on cards of different color, bees show a decided preference 

 for special tints; orange and yellow being the prime favorites. Similarly, no doubt, 

 the colors of flowers have a greater or smaller degree of attraction for these insects. 

 Indeed, it is beyond question that the fertilization of flowers by the visitation of 

 bees has tended to the development of the special colors patronized by the insects, 

 while blossoms which were of less favorite hues have gradually disappeared. Black, 

 white, and green flowers are not so common as yellow, orange, blue, or red; and 

 black is less prevalent than either of the others. Although experiments to prove or 

 disprove the sensibility of bees to sound have so far been negative, yet from the 

 fact that they are exceedingly sensitive to a certain peculiar cry occasionally emitted 

 by the queen, which acts like an electric shock, it would appear that hearing is 

 likewise well developed. That bees and wasps are able to find their way, and to fly 

 off apparently without hesitation straight for home, needs no proof. But this power 

 does not necessarily indicate some mysterious sense of direction, enabling them to 

 perceive their bearings by occult means. Rather may it be looked upon as due to 

 the ordinary observance of conspicuous landmarks, such as are utilized for guidance 

 even by man himself. Bees, for instance, have been taught the way to a store of 

 honey by the repetition of single experiences, proving that they pass from the un- 

 accustomed to the well known, little by little. Naturally, the direction of a point 

 to which whithersoever they may wander out, they must invariably return many 

 times a day, soon passes from the sphere of calculation and enters the region of 

 simple intuition; so rapid and unconscious are the various acts of perception in- 

 volv$d. That these insects do thus take note of landmarks has been shown by 

 Bates, who describes how a sand wasp carefully marked the spot where half of a 

 larva had been left by circling round and alighting in the vicinity. And even then, 

 when it returned, though it flew many times straight to a certain conspicuous leaf 

 close above the booty, doubtless a landmark, yet it could not for a long while and 

 after repeated pounces in the wrong direction, and more it seemed by good luck at 

 last succeed in finding it. No one who has heard the cry of an angry wasp, and 

 experienced the pain which has followed, will doubt that anger and malice have 

 their places in the wasp's nature. Often do these insects seem to make straight for 

 an innocent bystander, and sting from pure spitefulness. Sympathy for the ailing 

 and wounded, as among the ants, so among the bees, seems to be more noticeable 

 than it is toward those actually in distress, though uninjured. It has been 

 doubted, indeed, whether bees show any affection for one another; the caressing 

 antennae, as well as the personal attentions to each other so noticeable in the case 

 of ants, are certainly lacking. As in ants, however, the antennae seem to be the 

 chief organs of communication. 



