PARTLY IN THE PALPI. 45 



I fastened a strip of paper in the air by means of two 

 pins, suspended over it a camel's-liair brush containing 

 scent, and then put an ant at one end. She ran forward, 

 but stopped dead short when she came to the scented 

 brush. Graber suggests that she did so from 

 giddiness, but I am satisfied that this is not so. 

 Ants which habitually climb trees are not likely to 

 be affected by any such sensation. In my experi- 

 ments, whether the bridge was high or low, broad or 

 narrow, made no difference to them. Moreover, in 

 each case they stopped exactly when they came to the 

 scented pencil. Again, Graber has not observed that 

 I expressly stated that " after passing two or three 

 times, they took no further notice of the scent ; " 

 nor did they notice the caniel's-hair pencil unless it 

 was scented. 



As regards flies (Musca), Forel removed the wings 

 from some bluebottle flies and placed them near a 

 decaying mole. They immediately walked to it, and 

 began licking it and laying eggs. He then took them 

 away and removed the antennse, after which, even 

 when placed close to the mole, they did not appear to 

 perceive it. 



Plateau also * put some food of which cockroaches 

 are fond, on^ a table, and surrounded it with a low 



heraus dass es sich bei dem gewissen Umkelii-en lediglich um ein 

 versuchsweises Absclireiten oder Ausprobiren des unbekannteu Weges 

 handelte, oder das sich die Ameisen alinlich benehmen wie wir selbst, 

 ■wenn wir etwa auf einem schwanken Brette eine tiefe Gebirgskluft 

 iiberschreiten sollen." 



Graber's observation is, I doubt not, quite correct ; but his inference 

 is not, I think, well founded, nor was his experiment the same as 

 mine. 



* Bull, de la Soc. Ent. Belgique, 1870. 



