158 The Animal Mind 



602) ; that bees show no preference for flowers of any par- 

 ticular color (603) ; and that they often make errors, in 

 alighting on closed buds, seed pods, and wilted flowers, 

 which indicate defective vision (605). But Josephine 

 Wery and others have noted that bees do seek artificial 

 flowers (778). Even Plateau does not deny that an insect 

 may perceive flowers from a distance, " whether because it 

 sees the color in the same way that we do, or because it 

 perceives some kind of contrast between the flowers and 

 their surroundings" (603). 



Von Buttel-Reepen (114) gives one or two instances to 

 show that the color perception of bees is sometimes influ- 

 ential in helping them to recognize their own hives. He 

 reports a case where a stock of bees had been driven from 

 their hive and scattered. The front of the hive was blue. 

 Some of the bees tried to find their way into other hives, 

 and selected for their efforts those which had blue doors. 



It will be remembered that Loeb is convinced that 

 the relative effect of the different regions of the spec- 

 trum on invertebrate animals is identical with the effect 

 on plants ; that is, strongest for the violet end of the spec- 

 trum. This position has no significance for the problem 

 of color discrimination,- but obviously Loeb and Hess are 

 sharply opposed as to the facts. Recently Gross (271) 

 has used colored spectral lights of carefully equated in- 

 tensity, and a method which permits measurement of the 

 exact amount of light effect, in deflecting an animal from 

 its course of movement. Adult blowflies, fruit flies, and 

 moths, as well as larvae, were used as subjects. All the 

 lights were made of equal intensity, whereas in the or- 

 dinary daylight spectrum the yellow region is most in- 

 tense and differences of intensity exist all along the line. 

 Under these conditions, Loeb's contention was confirmed 



