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Show 426 HABITS OF INSECTS. CIIAP. XI. alluded to bees biting holes in flowers for the sake of obtaining the nectar. They often act in this manner, both with endemic and exotic species, in many parts of Europe, in the United States, and in the Himalaya; and therefore probably in all parts of the world. The plants, the fertilisation of which actually depends on insects entering the flowers, will fail to produce seecl when their nectar is stolen from the outside; and·even with those species which are capable of fertilising themselves without any aid, there can be no crossfertilisation, and this, as we know, is a serious evil in most cases. The extent to which hun1ble-bees carry on the practice of biting holes is surprising : a remarkable case was observed by me near Bournemouth, where there were formerly extensive heaths. I took a long walk, and every now and then gathered a twig of Erica tetralix, and when I had got a handful all the flowers were examined through a lens. This process was repeated 1nany times; but though many hundreds were examined, I did not succeed in finding a single flower which had not been perforated. Humble-bees were at the time sucking the flowers through these perforations. On the following day a large number of flowers were exa1nined on another heath with the same result, but here hive-bees were sucking through the holes. This case is all the more ren1arkable, as the innumerable holes had been made within a fortnight, for before that time I saw the bees everywhere sucking in the proper manner at the mouths of the . corolla. In an extensive flower-garden some large beds of Salvia graharni. Stachys coccinea, and Pentstemon argt~tus (?) had every flower perforated, and many scores were examined. I have seen whole fields of red clover (Trifolium pratense) in the same state. Dr. Ogle found that 90 per cent. of the CHAP. XI. PERFORATION OF THE COROLLA. 427 fUlow'edrs Sof Salvia glutinosa had been bitte n. I th n e nite tates Mr. Bailey says it is difficult to find a bloss~m _of the native Gerardia pedicularia without a hole In 1~; a~d ~r. Gentry, in speaking of the introduced w~star1a s~nensis, says "that nearly every flower had been perforated."* As ~ar as I have seen, it is always humble-bees which first b1te the holes, and they are well fitted for the work by possessing powerful mandibles; but hive-bees afterwards profit by the holes thus made. Dr. H. Muller however, writes to me that hive-bees someti1nes bit~ holes through the flowers of Erica tetralix. No insects except bee~, with the single exception of wasps in the case of Tntoma, have sense enough, as far as I have observed, to profit by the holes already made. Even humble-bees do not always discover that it would be advantageous to them to perforate certain flowers. There is an abun~ant supply of nectar in the nectary of Trop83ol~m trwolor, yet I have found this plant untouched In more than one garden, while the flowers of other plants had been extensively perforated; but a few years ago Sir/ J. Lubbock's gardener assured me that he had seen humble-bees boring through the nectary of this Tropmolum. Muller has observed humble-bees trying to suck at the mouths of the fl~~ers of Primula elatior and of an Aq uilegia, and, fa1hng in their attempts, they made holes through the corol.la; but they often bite holes, although they could With very little more trouble obtain the nectar in a legitimate n1anner by the mouth of the cm·olla. Dr. W. Ogle has communicated to me a curious case. . * J?r. Ogle, 'Pop>. Seienoe Re- p. 690. Gentry, ibid. May 1875, iAiew, ~uly 1869, p. 267. Bailey, p. 264. mencan Naturalist,' Nov. uns. |
