The Homing of the Hymenoptera 87 



claiming too much to insist that they are guided by land- 

 marks. 



WASPS AND BEES 



Tarry upon a busy corner of either a small town or a 

 metropolitan city. Stop each pedestrian and inquire how 

 wasps and bees find the way home. Nine out of ten will 

 say they are guided, in a straight line, by some myste- 

 rious inner force. This is so ingrained in the folk- 

 consciousness that the expression *'bee line" is used to 

 designate the most direct route. Some scientists must 

 be included in that number; for Bethe" insists that up to 

 three kilometers bees are guided home by a mysterious 

 power. He bases his conclusions upon such experiments 

 as the following: 



If a hive is removed a short distance the returning 

 bees at first fail to find it. 



Bees were taken into the town of Strasburg, a place 

 which Bethe claims the bees did not visit, and turned 

 loose in the streets. They went home directly. Bethe 

 claims that the majority of them started in the right 

 direction before they reached the housetops. 



A yellow hive was placed on a table. Near the hive 

 was placed a folding screen. On the screen were hung 

 colored handkerchiefs. The table and hive were covered 

 with green branches and blue paper was glued to the yel- 

 low face of the hive. The bees on returning hesitated a 

 moment, forming a slight swarm. Thereafter, they flew 

 without hesitation to the door of the hive. 



Bethe cites several other experiments but none are 

 more conclusive than these. Bethe 's preconceived no- 

 tions caused him to ignore those facts in his experiments 

 that do not serve his purpose. His experiments show 



^^ Bethe. A. Die Heimkerh fahigkeit der Ameisen und Bienen zum 

 Theil nach neuen Versuchen. Biol. Centrlb., Bd. 22, s. 193-215, 234-238. 



