SOME FURTHEB CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE FLIGHT OF BEES INTO A ROOM. 



If honey is placed in the part of a room opposite the windows, and the windows 

 opened, bees will soon appear at the openings. The flying-in is accomplished in a very 

 characteristic way. Very slowly, as if cautiously exploring, they risk going into the inner 

 part of the room where the light is subdued. Timidly the advance is made, back and 

 forth; here and there goes their flight until the honey is reached. 



When I was occupied with investigations on bees' eggs one summer, some honey-comb 

 was standing in the laboratory of the Institute. One day, on opening the window, some 

 bees flew in with remarkably certain flight to the wall opposite the windows. That puzzled 

 me, and I called the matter to the attention of the assistant, Dr. L. Schultze, who was 

 present, with the remark that these bees must have been nibbling sweets in another room, 

 because their flight' was so sure. The only honey in the Institute was in the room of the 

 assistant, and that window proved to have been closed. I knew from their coloring that 

 these Were strange bees, not those from the apiary in the Institute garden. The enigma 

 was soon solved. In a villa, scarcely twenty steps away from the open window, a bee- 

 keeper had a couple of colonies on the loft under the roof. The bees flew through the 

 roof window, and were, therefore, accustomed to flying into a dimly lighted room. 



This modified conduct proved to me that bees undoubtedly learn. The bees from an 

 outdoor apiary would certainly have acted differently. 



THE BEHAVIOR OF ROBBING BEES. 



Robbing bees look like robbers very soon, for they soon lose the hairy covering, because, 

 with their foreign hive-odors, they are pulled and hauled about when they force themselves 

 into strange colonies, and also because energetic licking must be done, as they get soiled 

 with honey. The colored hairs disappear, and the dark hard chitin shows, as can be seen 

 in the spring on old bees too, which have lived over the winter. 117 In summer, when most 

 of the bees are not old (see p. 35), robbers can be recognized in most cases by this 

 appearance. 



Since the loss of hairs on bees gives them the appearance of being smaller, these "black 

 bees" were formerly taken for a special kind of bee. 118 



It is of special interest to watch the conduct of these robbing bees, for they depart 

 completely from the usual behavior of workers. 



Their flight to a strange hive, when they are just starting in their profession, is very 

 uncertain, * ' timid, ' ' and ' i anxious. ' ' n9 Even the boldest act as if they did not dare to 

 follow their desire to rob, as if they knew the danger in which they were placing them- 

 selves. But if they once succeed in entering a hive they soon become bolder, and "those 

 which have carried on robbing for a long time may be recognized by their hasty practiced 

 manner of entering. ' n20 Here, again, we have a beautiful example of capacity for learning. 121 



TH E ORIGIN OF HOSTILE C ONDUCT. 



While solitary bees, such as Chalicodoma muraria or Andrena ovina or Anthrophora 

 personata have apparently no knowledge of their enemies, we see in Apis melliftca that this 



*« Dathe, 1. c, p. 180.\ - ^ 



118 Bienenzeitung, No. 5 and No. 11, I.: Nos. 13, 14, 15, V.: further, Dr. Magerstedt, Der prak- 

 tische Bienenvater, 2. Aufl., p. 154: Sondertehausen, 1845, etc. 



119 Lud. Huber, Neue nutzl. Bienenzucht, 13. Aufl., Lahr, 1900. 



120 Dathe, Lehrbuch der Bienenzucht, 1. c, p. 180. 



m "The nibblers are often so told that they stop the tees roming from the field at the entrance, 

 and the latter, therefore, getting the idea that they have flown into the wrong hive, reach them their 

 probosces and thus let them steal the honey from the mouths. Such robbers are like swindlers in a 

 great city, who cloak themselves as police officers, and under this mask carry out their fraud." Dathe, 

 1. c, p. 183. 



