2,2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 68 



nmni nigrofasciatum, he regards the foul odor as a protection against 

 the attacks of birds. 



The odors emitted by certain social Hymenoptera have perhaps 

 been studied more than those of all the other insects combined. 

 For many years ants and bees have been regarded as having a colony 

 odor (nest or hive odor) . Jaeger ( 1876) was among the first to sug- 

 gest that the colony odor is inherited, and speaking about bees Bethe 

 (1898) called the hive odor "hive substance" and thought of it 

 including both the family odor and colony odor. Bethe believes 

 " that these family odors, common to all the members of one family, 

 and differing slightly from those of other families of the same 

 species play an important part in the life-history of the social hymen- 

 optera. This family difference is due to the varying proportions 

 of the constituent odors " (Geisler, 1907). Von Buttel-Reepen and 

 the present writer have shown that the hive odor and family odor are 

 two distinct odors and that only the family odor is inherited. 



Fielde (1901) claims that a certain species of ants bears three 

 distinct odors as follows : ( i ) A scent deposited by her feet, form- 

 ing an individual trail, whereby she traces her own steps ; (2) an 

 " inherent " and inherited odor, manifested over her whole body, 

 identical in quality for queens and workers of the same lineage, 

 and a means for the recognition of blood relations; and (3) a nest 

 odor, consisting of the commingled odors of all the members of the 

 colony and used to distinguish their nest from those of aliens. Miss 

 Fielde (1903) says that the odor of ants changes with their age, and 

 that " A cause of feud between ants of the same species living in 

 different communities is a difference of odor arising out of differ- 

 ence of age in the queens whose progeny constitutes the communi- 

 ties, and difference of age in the ants composing the community." 

 She calls this odor the "progressive" odor and further (1904) 

 claims that " Fear and hostility are excited in the ant by an ant- 

 odor which she [the ant] has not individually encountered and found 

 to be compatible with her comfort." The same author (1905) calls 

 the family or " inherent " odor the " specific " odor which is trans- 

 mitted by the mother ant to all her offspring of both sexes within 

 the species. Miss Fielde claims that ants not only differentiate the 

 innate odors peculiar to the species, sex, caste, and individual, but 

 also the " incurred " odor of the nest and environment, and further- 

 more they can detect " progressive " odors, due to change of physio- 

 logical condition with the age of the individual. She says that " as 



