1908 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 225 



die Menschen- und Tierseele, Leipzig, 1892), builds numerous far-reaching theories upon 

 an incorrect biological basis. I shall speak of this in my "Conclusion" to this paper. The 

 foregoing list of errors is not very complete, but let the matter end here. 



While the founders' of our present knowledge in this sphere depended largely upon 

 the results gained in practice, we see now and then an almost complete ignorance of the 

 rich material which distinguished bee-keepers have laid down in the literature of practical 

 bee-keeping.'" 



As to terminology, I shall not use Bethe's phrase, "psychic qualities" (psychische 

 Qualitaten), since it can be interpreted in various ways. Bethe gives it a definite significance, 

 comprehending under it everything acquired in the life of an individual, and also every 

 capacity for sensation and learning; in short, everything that transcends unperceived reflex 

 activity." He considers ants and bees as mere reflex machines: "It seems to me that 

 these insects have no senses, have no ability to make experiences and modify by it their 

 actions; that all stimuli remain below the threshold of perceptible sensations and percep- 

 tions, and that they execute, in a purely mechanical way, all the apparently reasoned actions" 

 (Bethe, 1. c, p. 98). Whether this view is warranted, we shall see further on. 



The terms "reflex" and "instinct," I shall use in the significance Bethe gives to th< 

 word "reflek." Instinct is complicated reflex." He lets pass as reflex the inherent faculties; 

 the course of nervous processes is determined by inherited instincts. That acquired in the 

 life of the individual shows the opposite; here the course of the nervous processes indicates 

 experience, memory, learning, capability for association, etc." I shall restrict myself here 

 to these short statements, but shall add some psychological views in the concluding chapter. 



I shall first discuss the "Hive Odor" and reactions resulting from it, then give my 

 experiments and opinions on the capacity for intelligence in bees, and end with my con- 

 clusions concerning the homing instinct in bees, or the ability to find the hive. etc. 



THE HIVE ODOR AND THE REACTIONS RESULTING FROM IT. 



In the first section of "Investigations on Bees," Bethe (1. c.) treats the question as to 

 how bees recognize the hive, and concludes that the recognition results solely from an 

 odorous chemical compound (GeruchsstoflF) which he calls the "hive substance" (Nest- 

 stoff).'* He avoids the term "hive odor," because he thinks bees have no sense of smell. 



'' Francois Huber, Nouvelles observations sur les abeilles. Geneva, 1814; German by G. Kleine, 

 Einbeck, 1856; English editions in 1823 and 1841. This investigator, blind since his twentieth year[ 

 could not have carried on his observations without the help of his unusually efficient bee-keeper Burnens.' 



V. Siebold W'ahre Parthenogenesis bei Schmettcrlingen und I'ienen, Leipzig, ISSfi. etc. 



Leuckart, Zur Kenntnis des Generationswechsels und der Parthenogenesis bei Insekten, 1858, etc. 

 Surely the histological findings of these last-namtd mvcstigators with regard to the presence of spermato- 

 zoa in bee eggs can no longer be esteemed as free from objections. They doubtless depend upon an 

 illusion, for, as I have shown before (Die Befruchtungsvorgange im Bienenei, Bienenw. Centralblatt 

 Mr. 16, v. 15, August, 1899; further in Aus den Wundern des Bienenstaates, ibid, 19U0), according to 

 my investigations, the spermatozoa undergo the transformation into sperm nuclei in about 15 to 20 

 minutes (cf. Weismann, Vortrage iiber Deszendenz Tlieone, II. Aufi.. 1904, p. 250, I. Bd.); while v. 

 Siebold says he has seen living spermatozoa in eggs after 12, 15, and 22 hours. I believe, 'therefore, 

 that in Blochmann's paper (Ueber die Zahl der Richtungskorper bei befruchteten und unbefruchteteii 

 Bieneneiern, Morphol. Jahrb., 15 Bd., p. 85-96, 1889), and in Paulcke's investigations cZur Frage der 

 parthenog. Entstehung der Drohnen (Apis mellif.,) XVI. Bd., pp. 474-476, Anat. Anzeiger v. 5, 

 October, Jena, 1899, Vorlaufige Mitteilung), we have the first safe histological corroborations of the 

 theory of parthenogenesis in the honey-bee. In the meantime Petrunkewitsch has given full confirma- 

 tion (cf. Petrunkewitsch, Alex., Natural and Artificial Parthenogenesis, Amer. Naturalist, Vol. 39, 1905). 



'"v. Siebold (1. c, p. 57) expressly refers to the findings of bec-keopcrs as "the most important' work.'' 



" Bethe drops this expression in "Beer, Bethe, und J. v. Uexkiill, Vorschliige zu eincr objectivirenden 

 Nomenklatur. Biol. Centralbl., 19 Bd., 1899, Nr. 15, p. 517 (also in Centralblatt fur Physiologic, 1899, 

 Nr. 6) ; further in Bethe's "Noch einmal uber die psychischen Qualitaten der Ameisen," Archiv f d' 

 ges. Physiologic, Bd. 79, 1900, p. 45. 



" H. E. Ziegler, Ueber den Begriff des Instinkts. Verhandl. d. deutsch. zoolog. Gesellsch., 1892. 



" H. E. Ziegler, Theoretisches zur Tierpsychologie und vergleichenden Neurophysiologie. Biol Cen- 

 tralbl., Bd. XX., Nr. 1, 1900. 



'* According to Bethe we must consider the- existence of this "hive substance" as a "family odor." 

 'I believe th»t these family odors, common to all the members of one family, and differing 

 •lightly from those of other families of the same species, play an important part in the life-history of 

 the social hymenoptera. This family difference is due to the varying proportions of the constituent 

 odors" (1. c, p. 31). This "hive substance" must be inherited, as Jager likewise maintains (Zeitschrift 

 fur wissensch. Zoologie, Bd. 27, 1876, p. 327). I might mention here that I find no proof in Jager's 

 paper that he concludes the "exhalation odor" of a colony to be solely a "family odor" as Bethe does, 

 and still less proof that he considers this common odor to be "inherited," because it is a mixture of 

 many thousands of inherited individual odors. 



Bethe includes, under the term "hive substance," two separate substances, one giving the family 

 odor and the other causing the "various reactions toward hive mates and hive strangers." That this 

 conception will not cover all cases, I believe I can demonstrate in the course of my paper. 



