j8 ANTS AND SOME OTHER INSECTS. 



onstration of these matters I must refer you to my work above- 

 cited. A specific, magnetic, or other mode of orientation, indepen- 

 dent of the known senses, does not exist. 



The facts above presented constitute the basis of insect psy- 

 chology. The social insects are especially favorable objects for 

 study on account of their manifold reciprocal relationships. If in 

 speaking of their behavior I use terms borrowed from human life, 

 I request you, once for all, to bear in mind that these are not to 

 be interpreted in an anthropomorphic but in an analogous sense. 



THE PROVINCE OF COGNITION. 



Many insects (perhaps all, in a more rudimental condition) 

 possess memory, i. e., they are able to store up sense-impressions 

 in their brains for subsequent use. Insects are not merely attracted 

 directly by sensory stimuli, as Bethe imagines. Huber, myself, 

 Fabre, Lubbock, Wasmann, Von Buttel-Reepen, have demonstrated 

 this fact experimentally. That bees, wasps, etc., can find their way 

 in flight through the air, notwithstanding wind and rain (and hence 

 under circumstances precluding the existence of any possible odor- 

 iferous trail), and even after the antennae have been cut off, to a 

 concealed place where they have found what they desired, though 

 this place may be quite invisible from their nest, and this even 

 after the expiration of days and weeks, is a fact of special impor- 

 tance as proof of the above assertion. It can be shown that these 

 insects recognise objects by means of their colors, their forms, and 

 especially by their position in space. Position they perceive 

 through the mutual relations and succession of the large objects in 

 space, as these are revealed to them in their rapid change of place 

 during flight in their compound eyes (shifting of retinal images). 

 Especially the experiments performed by Von Buttel-Reepen and 

 myself leave no doubt concerning this fact. Additional proof of a 

 different nature is furnished by Von Buttel, who found that ether or 

 chloroform narcosis deprives bees of all memory. By this means 

 enemies can be converted into friends. Under these circumstances, 

 too, all memory of locality is lost and must be reacquired by means 



