34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 68 



C. Summary of Odors Emitted by Insects^ 



It is certain that a queen gives off an odor, and it seems reasonable 

 that the odors from any two queens would be sHghtly different. 

 All the offspring of the same queen seem to inherit a particular 

 odor from her. This odor, called the family odor, perhaps plays 

 little or no part in the lives of bees, for it is certainly masked by 

 the other odors. Drones seem to emit an odor peculiar to their sex, 

 but little can be said about it. It seems certain that each worker 

 emits an individual odor which is different from that of any other 

 worker. It is also probable that the wax generators and nurse bees 

 emit odors slightly different from those of the field bees. 



Of all the odors produced by bees, the hive odor is probably the 

 most important. It seems to be the fundamental factor or principle 

 upon which the social life of a colony of bees depends, and perhaps 

 upon which the social habit was acquired ; without it a colony of 

 bees could not exist. The hive odor is composed chiefly of the 

 individual odors from all the workers in a hive, and is supplemented 

 by the odors from the queen, drones, combs, frames and walls of 

 the hive, etc. From this definition it is easily understood why 

 no two colonies have the same hive odor. The hive odor of a queen- 

 less colony is perhaps considerably different from that of a colony 

 which has a queen. The absence of a queen odor in the hive odor 

 probably explains why the workers in a queenless colony are irritable 

 and never work normally. All the bees — workers, queen, and 

 drones — in a colony carry the hive odor of that colony on their bodies 

 among the hairs. This odor serves as a sign or mark by which all 

 the occupants of a hive know one another. Since the queen and 

 drones are " aristocrats," they seem to disregard the sign that has 

 , been thrust upon them, but whenever a queen enters the wrong hive, 

 she soon " realizes " that she wears the wrong badge. 



Worker bees returning to the hives from the field pass the guards 

 unmolested, because they carry the proper sign, although the hive 

 odor that they carry is fainter than when they left the hive, and it 

 is also partially masked by the odors from the nectar and pollen 

 carried by these bees. 



Bees kept in the open air for three days lose all the hive odor 

 carried on their bodies, but each bee still emits its individual odor. 

 When a colony is divided the hive odor in each half soon changes 



^ A part of this summarj^ has already been published in the Amer. Bee Jour., 

 July, 1916, pp. 232 and 233, and in the Roots' revised ABC and XYZ of 

 Bee Culture, 1917, pp. 639 and 640. 



