24 SENSE OF TASTE IN INSECTS. 



which he offered to his ants. Their antennae gave them 

 no warning. The smell of the honey attracted them, 

 and they began to feed; but the moment the honey 

 touched their lips, they perceived the fraud. Will tried 

 wasps with alum, placing it where they had been accus- 

 tomed to be fed with sugar. They fell into the trap, 

 and ate some, but soon found out their error, and began 

 assiduously rubbing their mouth parts to take away the 

 taste. 



Will found that glycerine, even if mixed with a large 

 proportion of honey, was avoided ; and to quinine they 

 had a great objection. If the distasteful substance is 

 inodorous and mixed in honey, the ant or bee com- 

 mences to feed unsuspiciously, and finds out the trick 

 played on her more or less quickly according to the 

 proportion of the substance and the bitterness or 

 strength of its taste. 



The delicacy of taste is, doubtless, greater in bees 

 and ants than in omnivorous flies or in carnivorous 

 insects. At the same time, the sense of taste in ants is 

 far from perfect, and they cannot always distinguish in- 

 jurious substances. Forel found that if he mixed 

 phosphorus in their honey, they swallowed it unsus- 

 pectingly, and were made very unwell. Some w-orkers, 

 he says,* " de Formica jpratensis se gorgerent de miel au 

 phosphore que je leur donnai. Apres cela elles 

 demeurerent pendant de nombreuses heures immobiles, 

 les mandibules ecartees, la bouche ouverte, avec Fair 

 tres obsedees. Celles qui en avaient le plus mange 

 perirent, les autres guerirent peu a pen." It cannot, 

 then, be doubted that insects possess a sense of taste, 

 the seat of it can hardly be elsewhere than in the 



* " Eeceuil Zool. Suisse." 1S87. 



