304 RECORDS. 



Miss Fielde described her experiments with many species of 

 these insects. Each species appears to have its distinctive odor, 

 discernible by other ants. Within each species there are also 

 differences of odor, dependent on the age of the colony, and the 

 age of the queen from whose eggs its inmates are produced. 

 The ant's organs of smell are its antennae, in which the joints 

 are as a series of noses, each having a special function. The 

 distal joint appreciates the nest-aura informing the ant whether 

 it is in its own nest or in that of an enemy. The second joint 

 discriminates between the odors of ants of the same species as 

 itself, but of different colonies. The third joint discerns the 

 scent of the track laid down by the ant's own feet, and enables 

 the ant to return upon any route that has been previously 

 traversed. The fourth and fifth joints smell the larvae and 

 pupae, and the removal of these joints disables the ant from 

 further care of the inert young. The sixth and seventh joints 

 make known to the ant the presence of ants of other species 

 than her own. So many as five joints may be retained by ants 

 whose antennae have normally eleven or twelve joints and these 

 ants will live peacefully together though they be of different sub- 

 families. But if seven joints be retained, the ants, similarly 

 grouped, will fight one another to the death. If ants make one 

 another's acquaintance before they are twelve hours old they 

 will thereafter live amicably together although they be of differ- 

 ent species, genera or even of different subfamilies. But in three 

 days after hatching their criterion of correct ant odor is estab- 

 lished, and they refuse to affiliate with ants whose odor is not 

 in accord with their standard. M. A. Bigelow, 



Secretary. 



