110 SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON BEES ANB WASPS. 



is from Attu, at the western side of the chain, to Atka, and that, 

 so far as he has been able to discover, it does not extend further 



east. 



Observations on Bees and Wasps. By Sir John Lubbock, 

 Bart., F.E.S., M.P., F.L.S., Vice-Chancellor of the University 

 of London. 



[Bead March 19, 1874.] 



The Social Hymenoptera, according to Messrs. Kirby and Spence*, 

 " have the means of communicating to eacli other information of 

 various occurrences, and use a kind of language which is mutu- 

 ally understood and is not confined merely to giving 



intelligence of the approach or absence of danger ; it is also co- 

 extensive with all their other occasions for communicating their 

 ideas to each other." 



Huber assui'es iis as regards Ants f that he has " frequently seen 

 the antennae used on the field of battle to intimate approaching 

 danger, and to ascertain their own party when mingled with the 

 enemy ; they are also employed in the interior of the ant-hill to 

 warn their companions of the presence of the sun, so favourable 

 to the development of the larva?, in their excursions and emigra- 

 ting to indicate their route, in their recruitings to determine the 

 time of departure," &c. Elsewhere also he says % " that should 

 an Ant fall in with any of her associates from the nest they put 

 her in the right way by the contact of their antennae." 



These statements are most interesting ; and it is much to be 

 regretted that he has not given us in detail the evidence on which 

 they rest. In another passage, indeed, he himself says § " if they 

 have a language, I cannot give too many proofs of it." Unfortu- 

 nately, however, the chapter which he devotes to this important 

 subject is very short, and occupied with general statements 

 rather than with the accounts of the particular experiments and 

 observations on which those statements rest. Nor is there any 

 serious attempt to ascertain the nature, character, and capabili- 

 ties of this antennal language. Even if by motions of these 

 organs Bees can caress, can express love, fear, anger, &c., it does 

 not follow that they can narrate facts or describe localities. 



* Introduction to Entomology, ii. p. 50. f L. c. p. 206. 



X L. c. p. 157. § L. c. p. 205. 



