Article beginning on page 251.
Psyche 4:251-252, 1883.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/4/4-251.html

The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

THE DOUBLE ROLE OF THE
arc! to a double role played by the
g of the honey-bee. These discov-
ies explain some hitherto inexplicable
enomena in the domestic economy of
e ants. It is already known that the
ney of our honey-bees, when mixed
th a tincture of litmus, shows a dis-
ct red color, or in other words has
acid reaction. It manifests this pe-
liarity because of the volatile formic
d which it contains. This admixed
id confers upon crude honey its pre-
se the formic acid is volatil-
The honey of vicious swarms of
pungent odor. This effect is pro-
ced by the formic acid, which is
esent in excess in the honey. Hith-
to it has been entirely unknown in
way the substratum of this pe-
rity of honey, the formic acid in
e honey, could enter into this vomit
rn the honey-stomach of the workers.
ly the most recent investigationa
TO furnished us an explanation of
roccss. The sting of the bees is
not only for defense but quite
incipally serves the important purpose
contributing to the stored honey an
undated from an article entitled 'Veber cine mile des stachels der honigbienen" in Dm&& oafyc&e apofkeker-xeiw, 15 Jan. iSS5, jahrg, s, f+; there reprinted from "/~d. bfdkr."
STING OF THE HONEY-BEE.*
antizymotic and antiseptic substance.
The observation has recently been made
that the bees in the hive, even when
they are undisturbed, wipe off on the
combs the minute drops of bee-poison
(formic acid) which from time to time
exude from the tip of their sting. And
this excellent preservative medium is
thiw sooner or later contributed to the
stored honey. The more excitable and
the more ready to sting the bees are,
the greater will be the quantity of for- mic acid which is added to the honey,
and the admixture of which good honey
needs. The praise which is so com-
monly lavished upon the Ligurian race
of our honey bees, which is indisposed
to sting-and ~uch 'praise is still ex-
pressed at the peripatetic gatherings
of German bee-masters - is therefore
from a practical point of view a false
praise. Now we understand also why
the stingless honey-bees of South Amer-
ica collect little honey- It is well
known that never more than a very
small store of honey is found in felled
trees inhabited by stingless Melipona.
What should induce the Melipona to
accumulate stores which they could not
preserve?! They lack formic acid.
Only three of the eighteen different
known species of honey-bees of northern
Brazil have a sting. A peculiar phe-
nomenon in the life of certain ante bas
always been problematical but now it
finds also its Seas6 forced explanation. It is well known that there are different grain-gathering species of ants. The




================================================================================

seeds of grasses aud other plants are
often preserved tor years in their little magazines, without germinating. A
very small red ant, which drags grains
of wheat and oats into its dwellings,
lives in India. These ants aae so small, that eight or twelve of them have to
drag on one grain with the greatest
exertion. They travel in two separate
ranks over smooth or rough ground,
just as it comes, and even up and down
steps, at the same regular pace. They
often have to travel with their booty
more than a thousand metres, to reach
their communal store-house. The re-
nowned investigator Moggridge repeat-
edly observed that when the ants were
prevented from reaching their mag-
azines of grain, the seeds began to
sprout. The same, was the case in
abandoned magazines of grain. Hence
the ants know how to prevent the sprout- ing of the grains, but the capacity for
sprouting is not destroyed. The re-
nowned English investigator John Lub-
bock, who communicates this and sim-
ilar facts in his work entitled "Ants.
bees and wasps," adds that it is not
yet known in what way the ants pre-
vent the sprouting of the collected
grains. But now it is demonstrated
that here also it is only the formic acid whose preservative influence goes so far that it can make seed incapable of ger-
mination for a determinate time or con-
tinuously.
It may be mentioned that we have
also amongst us a species of ant which
lives on seeds and stores these up. This is our Lasius niger, which carries seeds of Viola into its nests, and, as Witt-
mack has communicated recently to the
Sitzungsberichte der gesellschaft natur- forschender freunde zu, Berlin, does the same with the seeds of Veronica he&-
raefolia.
Syke states in his account of an
Indian ant, Pkeidole providers, that
this species collects a great store of
grass-seeds. But he observed that the
ants brought their store of grain into
the open air to dry it after the monsoon storms. From this it appears that the
preservative effect of the formic acid is destroyed by great moisture, and hence
this drying process. So that amongst
the bees the honey which is stored for
winter use, and among the. ants the
stores of grain which serve for food,
are preserved by one and the same fluid, formic acid.
EDITORIAL NOTE.
This same theory has been suggested
many times by our most advanced Amer-
ican bee keepers. It has been hinted
that this same formic acid was what
made honey a poison to many people,
and that the sharp sting of some honey,
notably that from bass wood or linden,
originated in t'his acid from the poison sack. If this is the correct explanation, it seems strange that the same kind of
honey is always peculiar for greater or
less acidity as the case may be. We
often see bees with sting extended
and tipped with a tiny drop of poison ;
but how do we know that this poison is
certainly mingled with the honey? Is
this any more than a guess ? A. J. COOK.



================================================================================