1908 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 1187 



ARE BEES REFLEX MACHINES? 



Experimental Contribution to the Natural History of the Honey-bee by 

 H. V. Buttel-Reepen, Ph. D. Translated by Mary H. Geisler. 



Continued from July 1st issue. 



THE LOSS OF MEMORY FOR LOCALITY THROUGH SWARM DIZZINESS, ETC. 



Through swarm dizziness as well as through stupefaction (as before mentioned), 

 memory pictures are extinguished, or, at least, are without influence. 



If a so-called artificial swarm is made by sweeping the bees from the frames of a 

 strong colony with their queen into a new hive placed upon a new stand, then all the 

 flying bees return to the original hive, and only the young bees remain in the new one 

 with the queen. In a genuine swarm, on the other hand, all the bees remain in the dwelling 

 of their choice. They have forgotten their old dwelling. But it is not a complete for- 

 getting, for, if a swarm becomes quecnless within the first few days, then the bees 

 return to the mother colony — the memory for the old home is reawakened. The extinc- 

 tion of the memory for locality is not, therefore, as final as in narcotization, etc. The 

 old nerve-paths are maintained, but are no longer traveled over, because there is a diversion 

 into other nerve-paths; but if the stronger influences are removed by queenlessness (Wei^el- 

 .inruhe, see p. 12), ihen the old-trodden paths come into effect again and adjust the 

 direction of the stimuli in the former way ; i. e., earlier memory pictures are reawakened 

 and the bees return to the mother colony. 



An extinction of the memory of locality is brought about likewise Ijy the apparently 

 narcotic influence of buckwheat honey '"' in the cases mentioned before. 



Also bees kept in a dark room for many days, and those numbed with cokP" appear 

 to lose their earlier memory for locality to a certain extent. Further, the throwing of 

 bees into water, the bathing of a colony, will cause the disappearance of the acquired 

 power of orientation." A colony thus l^andled can be placed in a difi^erent position with- 

 out a return to the accustomed place of flight. Time has a substantial influence upon the 

 disappearance of memory pictures too. In approximately five or si.x weeks, or often 

 sooner, bees removed to a new position forget the influences of the old place. After this 

 length of time the hive can be changed back and put in any chosen position of the old 

 location without fear of the liees seeking the original spot. Memories disappear quickly 

 if new impressions obliterate the old. If bees stay in a hive, wintering for months, there- 

 fore receiving no new place impressions, the impressions which were received before the 

 wintering commenced remain. In very many cases it can be determined certainly whether 

 a transference shortly before the first spring flight can be undertaken without much loss 

 to the colony. If the first weather for flying is inauspicious, as is generally the case, and 

 the temperature scarcely reaches the 7° to 8° C. in the shade necessary for flight, the 

 bees fly out, lingering for only a short flight with slow orientation, and execute the neces- 

 sary cleansing. They thereby impress upon themselves the new position. But if, as 

 happens now and then, after a long period of cold, a relatively very warm spring day 

 breaks in, the excitement in the hive is great ; thousands press forth, and many hasten 

 off for a longer flight with only a hasty, careless orientation. Under such circumstances a 

 greater or less number, in coming back, return to the old place. 



Franqois Huber*^ reports that in the fall he had fed some honey to great numbers of 

 Lees from a window ; then the honey was taken away and the hives were kept closed all 



'^ "If the buckwheat-honey flow is strong, then the bees seem to be unmistakably into.xicated, and 

 tiiey go into the nearest hive-entrance with filled honey-sacs. The observation has been made that 

 hives which are passed over by bees from hives standing further back increase perceptibly in population 

 and honev at the cost of the hives behind" (Bw. Centralblatt, Nr. 3, p. 3o, 1^'.)4). 



so Deutscher Bienenfreund, 35, Jahrg. 1899, Nr. 4. 



^'^ Frangois Huber, 1. c. In men, after a violent illness, after a concussion of the brain, after rtuiiefi- 

 cation, after poisoning with carbon dioxide, etc., a loss of memory and retrograde amnesia occuis (.Aug. 

 Forel, Das Gedachtnis und seine Abnormitaten, p. 37, ff.; Zurich, 1885; A. Goldscheider, Die I'.edcutung 

 der Reize im Lichte der Neuronlehre, p. 28, ff. ; Leipzig, 1898). 



*'^ Nouvelles observations sur les abeilles, 2d edition, 2 vol., Paris and Geneva, ISII; Ceiman by 

 Kltine, F.inbeck, ]856; English editions in 1823 and 1841. 



