HOMING BEES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 261, 4 August 1928, Page 28

HOMING BEES

HOW THE HIVE IS FOUND. \ There has been much speculation among naturalists how bees discover the way back to their hives. Many theories have been enunciated; among, them that of Berthe, who suggested 30 years ago that the hive emitted ome kind of radiation, by which tlie bees were guided, much in the same way as ships or aeroplanes are guided by directional wireless signals. Professor J. A. Thomson reviews the latest inquiries into tlie subject in the “Empire Review.” German naturalists have discovered that bees are guided partially by landmarks and the odour of the hive, aiid that there is a “sense of direction in the antennae.” When the antennae are removed the workers are unable to return to the hive with the same certainty of direction as before. There have been some striking experiments, however, which point in another direction. A hive was set up in a piece of waste ground almost devoid of visible ■ landmarks. It was then observed that the bees spent, an unusually long time in their preliminary surveys. Then the bees were taught to find sugar in a definite spot. 150 yards due north from the hive. Some were caught in boxes at tlie feeding plnee. and were ' presently released. They flew back to the hive southward. Others were carried in boxes to a point 150 yards due cast of the hive, and there released. These also flew southward us before, al- , though this course was taking them away from the hive. When .they had flown 150 yards in this direction, however—and they judged the distance to It) yards—they hesitated. When they discovered that they were wrong, they began to circle until they found the hive by sight or scent. Apparently the bees knew in what direction they had corne from the hive and about wliat distance, and their first attempt was simply to retrace their Hight without regard to such landmarks as there were. A further insight into Ibis sense of directimi was gained by experiments'in w' icli the captured workers were kept in their boxes lor an hour before being released. cither at the “right” or “wrong” places. They did not fly due south, but nt a deli nite angle to the west of this. This angle was that through which the sun had travelled while the bees were in captivity. The bees were steering by the sun, as ants are said to do. In repeating some of these experiments with a iliive in a garden well surrounded by Inndin'nrks it was found the bees learned to disregard the sun and their sense of distance after a few deceptions, and steered, so to sneak, "by the map”—that is. by the visible landm.-irks. nnd returned directly to the bile from whatever position they were released. The bees soon learned to disregard guides nnd indications which had provcrl Io lie untrustworthy owing to experimenter's interfering.