19 JANUARY 1940, Page 21

Russian Bees

Russian men of science, who are among the most ingenious researchers into animal psychology, are alleged to have made a curious advance in the training of hive bees to a useful purpose. If the bee is fed on sugar scented by a particular flower it will thereafter seek out that flower though it was previously unpopular. It is said that lucerne (which in my experience attracts butterflies rather than bees) has produced very much more seed where neighbouring bees have been so lured into fertilising the flowers. Lubbock's original experi- ments suggest that the sugar should also be appropriately tinted.