The Nervous System and the Senses 
173 
If the queen is removed from a colony and a strange queen 
is placed among the bees in a cage, after a day or so she has, 
according to the current belief, acquired the hive odor and 
she will be accepted if 
released. If a strange 
bee attempts to enter a 
hive, it is usually recog¬ 
nized at once and re¬ 
pelled, this being con¬ 
sidered as due to the 
possession of a different 
hive odor, but if a field 
bee returns to its own 
hive, it is admitted, be¬ 
cause it has the hive 
odor. These responses 
may vary according to 
the honey-flow and other 
environmental factors. 
In these cases and many 
others, there is evidence 
of the importance of re¬ 
sponses to odors in the 
behavior of bees, so that 
there is justification for 
believing that the sense 
of smell is of primary 
importance. It must be 
admitted that the belief 
in this importance is 
based chiefly on the ac¬ 
cumulated experiences of 
beekeepers rather than 
Fig. 91. — Antennal organs: A, antennal 
joint of drone, showing a few pore plates 
(PorPl) and a group of Ford's flasks 
(FFl) ; B, pore plates and Forel’s flasks 
from drone’s antenna; C, pore plates 
(PorPl), pegs (P(j) and tactile hairs 
(THr) from worker’s antenna ; D, struc¬ 
ture of pore plate and tactile hair; 
E, structure of peg; F, structure of 
tactile hair; G, structure of Forel’s flask ; 
H , structure of pit peg. 
on careful experiments, which are sorelyneeded in an examina¬ 
tion of these data in order to eliminate complicating environ¬ 
mental factors. Additional evidences of odor influences are 
given in the discussion of swarming. 
