202 INTELLIGENCE IN INSECTS 



judgments on animal psychology are usually conservative, 

 attributes to insects an " ability to instinctively draw in- 

 ferences from analogy." Some of the facts adduced are the 

 following: After bees had been trained to come to artificial 

 flowers of a certain color for honey they deserted the Dahlias 

 upon which they had been working and began to work 

 upon other artefacts of different colors and in various 

 positions. The bee may be supposed, according to Forel, 

 if we interpret him correctly, to go through with a mental 

 process corresponding to "This appearance means honey; 

 therefore this other similar appearance likewise means honey; 

 I will investigate it." The behavior of the bee may indicate 

 a step toward rational procedure, but we are hardly 

 justified in assuming that any act of comparison between 

 similar flowers takes place in the insect's mind. A certain 

 appearance has been associated with the act of sucking 

 honey. This association leads the bee to visit the same 

 artificial flower again; or we may say that this object tends 

 to set in action the honey-getting activities. If the same 

 object causes the return of the bee we do not appeal to any 

 inference from analogy. If now a similar object provokes 

 the visit of the bee, it may mean simply that the stimulus 

 is sufficiently like the first to set the honey-getting activities 

 in motion. The bee gets a different perception from the 

 second object, but it does not necessarily recognize that it is 

 different from and at the same time similar to the first. 

 What appears in many cases to be reasoning from analogy, 

 involving judgments of likeness, is really based on nothing 

 more than lack of discrimination. While granting that a 

 simple act of inference may be performed by the bee, the 

 facts do not, I think, require us to conclude that it actually 

 is performed. 



Another case involving a decided approach to reason, 



