PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS. 593 



flew over this heart without noticing it; then there came a single bee 

 which chanced to be followed by a second. From this time on this 

 dahlia heart, situated in the line of flight, was visited like the others, 

 while on the other hand the petunia-hieracium artifacts were no longer 

 regarded because they were now recognized as fraudulent. 



Plateau showed that artificial flowers, although they might be very 

 good imitations (for us), were disregarded. I placed such flowers among 

 the dahlias. They were in fact completely unnoticed. Perhaps, as I 

 have already pointed out, the bees could distinguish the chlorophyll 

 colors from our artificial colors by a mixture of ultra-violet rays or in 

 some similar way. As, however. Plateau imagines that the artificial 

 flowers repel the insects, I made on September 19 the following 

 coarsely cut paper flowers: 



«', a red flower. 



/^, a white flower. 



;/, a blue flower. 



(S, a blue flower with a yellow heart made out of a yellow leaf. 



f , a rose-colored piece of paper with a dr}' dahlia heart. 



C, a green dahlia leaf (unaltered). 



It was 9 a. m. I placed a drop of honey on each of the artifacts 

 set under the dahlias. For a quarter of an hour numerous bees flew 

 quite near to my artifacts without noticing the hone}^, therefore with- 

 out smelling it. 1 went away for an hour. When 1 returned the 

 artifact S had no honey, therefore had apparently been discovered by 

 a bee; all the others were completely intact and had remained dis- 

 regarded. 



I now took pains to place a quite near a bee that was sitting upon a 

 dahlia. The attention of the bee was, however, so engrossed by the 

 dahlias that 1 biid to repeat the attempt four or five times before 1 

 succeeded in bringing the honey directly to his proboscis. This one 

 now immediately began to suck the honey from the paper flower. I 

 marked him on the back with a blue color in order to recognize him, 

 and repeated the experiment with ^ and f, whose bees 1 marked with 

 3'ellow and white. The blue })ee flew away, but soon after returned 

 from the hive and went directly to a, at first hovering uncertainlj' 

 here and there, then to S^ where it fed, then back again to «', but not 

 at all to the dahlias. Later the yellow bee returned to /i and fed, 

 then flew to a and d, where it also fed, and did not trouble itself about 

 the dahlias any more than the blue one had. 



Now came the white bee, looked for f, did not find it inunediately, 

 and fed in some dahlias. Yet he tarried in each dahlia but a moment, 

 as if the impelling idea of the honey was vexing him. He came 

 back to the artifacts, whose appearance he seemed not 3'ct to fully 

 associate with the remembrance of the honey, but finally found a sep- 

 arated and somewhat depressed portion of f and sucked hone}^ in it. 



