2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 65 



been called organs of taste, but no one has ever attempted to prove ex- 

 perimentally the function of these organs. Judging from the fact 

 that insects prefer some foods to others and that certain insects often 

 refuse poisoned foods, it is generally believed that insects can taste, 

 regardless of whether or not they have gustatory organs. 



At this place it is desirable to define the human senses of smell 

 and taste, so that we may use the definitions as a basis for interpreting 

 the responses to the same or similar stimuli in the honey bee. The 

 sense of smell is called forth by substances in a gaseous or vaporous 

 condition, although gases dissolved in the liquids of the mouth may 

 give rise to actual tastes. The sense of taste is brought about by sub- 

 stances either in solution when introduced into the mouth, or dis- 

 solved by the liquids in the mouth. Parker and Stabler ( 1913) , after 

 experimenting upon themselves, and Professor Parker upon other 

 vertebrates, say : 



We therefore definitely abandon the idea that taste and smell differ on the 

 basis of the physical condition of the stimulus, a state of solution for taste, 

 a gaseous or vaporous condition for smell, and maintain that both senses are 

 stimulated by solutions, though in smell, at least for air-inhabiting vertebrates, 



the solvent is of a very special kind In air-inhabiting vertebrates the 



olfactory solvent is a slimy fluid of organic origin and not easily imitated. 



From the preceding definitions it is evident that the senses of smell 

 and taste in vertebrates cannot be sharply separated, and the present 

 paper will show that these two senses in the honey bee cannot be 

 separated at all. In the honey bee it will be shown that the sense of 

 taste is only one phase of the olfactory sense. We have not the slight- 

 est conception as to how odor and taste stimuli in any animal act upon 

 nerve endings to produce the various sensations of smell and taste ; 

 and as shown in the following pages, when bees are fed foods which 

 contain undesirable substances emitting extremely weak odors, they 

 refuse to eat the foods after " tasting " them. In view of the two 

 preceding facts we may call this perception an olfactory-gustatory 

 sense, although the writer will endeavor to show that the gustatory 

 sense plays no part in these responses. 



In the investigation herein recorded, two objects which throw 

 considerable light on whether or not bees have a true gustatory sense 

 have been kept in view : ( 1 ) To determine whether bees have likes and 

 dislikes in regard to foods, and (2) to make a careful study of the 

 morphology of all the sense organs on the mouth-parts of the honey 

 bee. 



