190 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



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AV. F. CLARKE, Editor. 



AUGUST, 1874. 



X 



Bees and Wasps. 



Sir Jobu Lubbock has just read a paper 

 on the above subject at the Linnasan Society. 

 The paper commenced by pointing out, 

 with reference to the power of communica- 

 tion with one another said to be possessed 

 by Hymenoptcra, that tlie observations on 

 record scarcely justify tlie conclusions 

 which have been drawn from them. In 

 support of the opinion that ants, bees and 

 wasps, possess a true language, it is usually 

 stated that if one bee discovers a store of 

 honey, the others are soon aware of the 

 fact. This, however, does not necessarily 

 imply the possession of any power of des- 

 cribing localities, or anything which could 

 correctly be called a language. If the bees 

 or wasps merely follow their fortunate 

 companions, the matter is simple enough. 

 If, on the contrary, the others are sent, the 

 case will be very different. In order to test 

 this, Sir John kept honey in a given place 

 for some time, in order to satisfy himself 

 that it would not readily be found by the 

 bees, and then brought a bee to the honey, 

 marking it so that he could ascertain 

 whether it brought others or sent them, the 

 latter, of course, implying a much higher 

 order of intelligence and power of com- 

 munication. After trying the experiment 

 several times with single bees and obtain- 

 ing only negative results, Sir John Lub- 

 bock procured one of Marriott's observa- 

 tory-hives, which he placed in his sitting- 

 room. The bees had free access to the 

 open air ; but there was also a small side 

 or postern door which could be opened at 

 pleasure, and which led into the room. 

 This enables him to feed and mark any 

 particular bees ; and he recounted a num- 

 ber of experiments, from whicli it appeared 

 that comparatively few bees found their 

 own way through the postern, while those 

 which did so the great majority flew to the 

 window, and scarcely any found the lioney 



for themselves. Those, on the contrary, 

 which were taken to the honey, passed 

 backwards and forwards between it and 

 the hive, making on an average, five jour- 

 neys in the hour. Sir John had, also, in a 

 similar manner, watched a number of 

 marked wasps, with very similar results. 

 These and other observations of the same 

 tendency appear to show that, even if bees 

 and wasps have the power of informing 

 one another when they discover a store of 

 good food, at any rate they do not habitu- 

 ally do so ; and this seemed to him a 

 strong reason for concluding that they are 

 not in the habit of communicating facts. 

 When once wasps had made themselves 

 thoroughly acquainted with their way, 

 their movements were most regular. They 

 spent three minutes supplying themselves 

 with honey, and then flew straight to their 

 nest, returning after an interval of about 

 ten minutes, and thus making, like the 

 bees, about five journeys an hour. During 

 September they began in the morning at 

 about six o'clock, and later when the morn- 

 ings began to get cold, and continued to 

 work without intermission till dusk. They 

 made, therefore, rather more than fifty 

 journeys in the day. Sir John had also 

 made some experiments on the behavior of 

 bees introduced into strange hives, which 

 seemed to contradict the ordinary state- 

 ment that strange bees are always recogniz- 

 ed and attacked. Another point as to 

 which very diff'erent opinions have been 

 propounded is the use of the antennae. 

 Some entomologists have regarded them as 

 olfactory organs, some as ears, the weight 

 of authority being perhaps in favor of the 

 latter opinion. In experimenting on his 

 wasps and bees. Sir John, to his surprise, 

 could obtain no evidence that they heard at 

 all. He tried them with a shrill pipe, with 

 a whistle, with a violin, with all the sounds 

 of which his voice was capable, doing so, 

 moreover, within a few inches of their 

 heads ; but they continued to feed without 

 the slightest appearance of consciousness. 

 Lastly, he recounted some observations 

 showing th;it bees have the power of dis- 

 tinguishing colors. The relations of insects 

 to flowers imply that the former can distin- 

 guish color ; but there had been as yet but 

 few direct observations on the point. 



