198 INTELLIGENCE IN INSECTS 



position of the old one the bee would work upon it as if 

 unaware of the substitution. The same trait is shown in 

 the interesting experiments of Turner on the homing of bur- 

 rowing bees. Melissodes, the first form worked with, digs 

 holes in the ground and makes excursions from the nest at 

 quite regular intervals. During the bee's absence a rect- 

 angular piece of white paper with a hole in the center was 

 placed over the nest so that the hole of the paper coincided 

 with that of the burrow. The bee when returning circled 

 about the nest, hovered over the paper, and then circled 

 about again; after repeating such performances for two min- 

 utes she entered the nest. On her next return she hovered 

 about for half a minute and made her entrance. During 

 her next absence a hole was made in the ground about four 

 inches away and covered by the white paper as before, 

 while a piece of watermelon rind with a hole in the center 

 was placed over the burrow. When the bee returned she 

 hovered over the melon rind and circled about for a minute 

 as if appreciating that things were not quite as they should 

 be and then entered her nest. The melon rind was then 

 removed and a rectangular piece of white paper was arched 

 over the nest so as to form a covering open at either end. 

 The piece of paper with the hole in the center was left where 

 it was in the preceding experiment. When the bee returned 

 she circled around for about a minute and then went into 

 the hole in the middle of this paper. The insect was deceived, 

 but only temporarily, for she quickly came out of the artificial 

 hole, entered one end of the tent-like covering, and found 

 her hole. The arrangements were left undisturbed during 

 the next three flights of the bee, and the insect found her 

 nest with little loss of time, as she did also when the tent 

 was turned at right angles to its previous position. 



In another experiment the tent was removed for a short 



