INTELLIGENCE IN INSECTS 215 



The power of communication among bees is very limited. 

 As the result of a long series of experiments on honey bees 

 Lubbock has concluded that these insects do not lead one 

 another to places where they find food. After numerous 

 observations and experiments on bumble bees Wagner has 

 come to a similar conclusion for these forms. In both 

 hive bees and bumble bees the angry hum of a few bees is 

 taken up by others and a sort of communication of anger 

 spreads through the group. Similarly a note of distress, the 

 "heulen," of the hive bee which frequently follows upon 

 the loss of the queen, spreads from the bees which first 

 discover the loss. Another note is predominant in swarming 

 time, which sometimes evokes swarming activities in neigh- 

 boring hives (Buttel-Reepen). In bumble bees where the 

 language of sound is apparently more simple, the hum of the 

 wings, according to Wagner, serves solely as a warning of the 

 presence of danger "die Hummeln mit Hilfe ihrer Flugel 

 nur von drohender Gefahr und von nichts anderem Kunde 

 geben konnen." All of the varieties of sound which the 

 bumble bees make with the aid of their wings have not the 

 least effect upon their comrades, with the single exception of 

 the peculiar note emitted hi time of danger which serves 

 most efficiently to arouse other inhabitants of the nest. 

 There is nothing in the communication of ants or bees that 

 calls for the exercise of much intelligence. Their language, 

 like the language of animals everywhere, consists solely of 

 instinctively made and instinctively recognized signs. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BETHE, A. Durfen wir den Ameisen und Bienen psychiche Qualitaten 

 zuschreiben? Pfltiger's Archiv., 70, 15, '98. 

 Noch einmal iiber die psychiche Qualitaten der Ameisen, I.e. 79, 

 39, '00. 



