ORGANS OF SPECIAL SENSE. 109 



of this sense by bees, of which much evidence will 

 subsequently come before us, cannot be doubted. 



We have now to consider the "smell hollows" (in 

 cross section, s, Fig. 21), covered by a thin layer lying 

 over a goblet-formed cavity beneath, into which passes 

 a nerve end cell, clearly unlike that provided to the 

 feeling hair (_/"). These oval forms are distinctly not 

 tactile, on account of their depressed position, but, for 

 reasons now following, almost certainly olfactory. 

 That the sense of smell is possessed by the antennae 

 simple observations would appear to favour. If bees 

 have food presented to them, the ends of the antennae 

 are, in alternation, brought close to it before the tongue 

 is advanced. If it contains even a small quantity of 

 an objectionable body which evaporates, the bee imme- 

 diately retreats ; but if the added substance be non- 

 vaporisable, such as corrosive sublimate, the antennae, 

 although used, do not detect its presence. The tongue, 

 however, immediately suffers, of which evidence is 

 given by the hurried departure, and the earnest efforts 

 made to clean away the cause of offence. 



About three years since, near Bagshot, I carried 

 across a heathy plain, skirted on each side by firs, a 

 fresh female Emperor moth, lying at the bottom of a 

 muslin bag. After travelling about a mile, I retraced 

 my steps ; and although, during several days' hunting 

 for wild bees in the same locality, I had not seen an 

 " Emperor," the males now met me, constantly flying 

 fearlessly up to the muslin bag — my companion, a 

 collector, having a very busy time. Similar facts every 

 naturalist could relate. The antennae of male moths 

 are exceedingly large and extended in surface, and 



