The Living Machine 317 



It is this stereotropism which causes her to seok a hidinj? 

 place ill the earth wherein to lay her eggs. This explanation 

 would be very simple and satisfying did we know what it is 

 which makes the ant at one moment responsive to light and 

 at another to touch. "Presumably" Locb's explanation is cor- 

 rect, but so long as it is founded on presumption only, it can 

 hardly be said to be strictly scientific. 



Professor Vernon Kellogg has however made some observa- 

 tions on the swarming of bees which prove pretty conclu- 

 sively that this behavior is due to positive heliotropism in 

 this insect. Professor Kellogg 's bees were kept in a cloth 

 jacketed hive, with a small opening at the bottom. He says, 

 "Last spring at the normal swarming time, while standing 

 near the jacketed hive, I heard the excited hum of a begin- 

 ning swarm and noted the first issuers rushing pellinell from 

 the entrance. Interested to see the behavior of the com- 

 munity in the hive during such an ecstatic condition as that 

 of swarming, I lifted the cloth jacket, when the excited mass 

 of bees which was pushing frantically down to the small exit 

 in the lower corner of the hive turned with one accord about 

 face and rushed directly upward away from the opening 

 toward and to the top of the hive. Here the bees jammed, 

 struggling violently. I slipped the jacket partly on ; the ones 

 covered turned down ; the ones below stood undecided ; I 

 dropped the jacket completely ; the mass began issuing from 

 the exit again ; I pulled off the jacket, and again the whole 

 community of excited bees flowed — that is the word for it, 

 so perfectly aligned and so evenly moving were all the indi- 

 viduals of the bee current — up to the closed top of the hive. 

 Leaving the jacket off permanently, I prevented the issuing 

 of the swarm until the ecstasy was passed and the usual 

 quietly busy life of the hive was resumed. About three hours 

 later there was a similar performance and failure to issue 

 from the quickly unjacketed hive. On the next daj^ another 

 attempt to swarm was made, and after nearly an hour of 

 struggling and moving up and down, depending on my 

 manipulation of the black jacket, most of the bees got out of 

 the hive's opening and the swarming came off on a weed 

 bunch near the laboratory. That the issuance from the hive 

 at swarming time depends upon a sudden extra-development 

 of positive heliotropism seems obvious. The ecstasy comes 

 and the bees crowd for the one spot of light in the normal 

 hive, namely, the entrance opening. But Avhen the covering 

 jacket is lifted and the light comes strongly in from above 

 — my hive was under a skylight — they rush toward tlie top, 

 that is, toward the light. Jacket on and light shut off from 

 above, down they rush; jacket off and light stronger from 



