Abstract
AT the meeting of the Linnean Society on Thursday last, Sir John Lubbock read an account of his further observations on the habits of insects, made during the past year. The two queen ants which have lived with him since 1874, and which are now, therefore, no less than eight years old, are still alive, and laid eggs last summer as usual. His oldest workers are seven years old. Dr. Müller, in a recent review, had courteously criticised his experiments on the colour sense of bees, but Sir John Lubbock pointed out that he had anticipated the objections suggested by Dr. Müller, and had guarded against the supposed source of error. The difference was, moreover, not one of principle, nor does Dr. Müller question the main conclusions arrived at, or doubt the preference of bees for blue, which indeed is strongly indicated by his own observations on flowers. Sir John also recorded some further experiments with a reference to the power of hearing. Some bees were trained to come to honey which was placed on a musical box on the lawn close to a window. The musical box was kept going for several hours a day for a fortnight. It was then brought into the house and placed out of sight, but at the open window and only about seven yards from where it had been before. The bees, however, did not find the honey, though when it was once shown them, they came to it readily enough. Other experiments with a microphone were without results. Every one knows that bees when swarming arc popularly, and have been ever since the time of Aristotle, supposed to be influenced by clanging kettles, &c. Experienced apiarists are now disposed to doubt whether the noise has really any effect, but Sir John suggests that even if it has, with reference to which he expressed no opinion, it is possible that what the bees hear are not the loud low sounds, but the higher overtones at the verge of, or beyond our range of hearing. As regards the industry of wasps, he timed a bee and a wasp, for each of which he provided a store of honey, and he found that the wasp began earlier in the morning (at 4 a.m.), worked on later in the day. He did not, however, quote this as proving greater industry on the part of the wasp, as it might be that they are less sensitive to cold. Moreover, though the bee's proboscis is admirably adapted to extract honey from tubular flowers, when the honey is exposed, as in this case, the wasp appears able to swallow it more rapidly. This particular wasp began work at four in the morning, and went on without any rest or intermission till a quarter to eight in the evening, during which time she paid Sir John 116 visits.
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The Senses of Bees . Nature 27, 46 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/027046a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027046a0