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Show 430 HABITS OF INSECTS. CHAP. XI. kinds to their having long practised the instinct of moulding cells and pots of wax, or of enlarging their old cocoons with tubes of wax; for they are thus compelled to work on the inside 'a,nd outside of the same object. In the early part of the summer of 1857 I was led to observe during some weeks several rows of the scarlet kidney-bean ( Phaseolus multiflorus ), whilst attending to the fertilisation of this plant, and daily saw humble- and hive-bees sucking at the ~mouths of the flowers. But one day I found several humblebees employed in eutting holes in flower after flower; and on the next day every single hive-bee, without exception, instead of alighting on the left wing-petal and sucking the flower in the proper n1annor, flew straight without the least hesitation to the calyx, and sucked through the holes which had been n1ade only the day before by the humbJe-bees; and they continued this habit for many following days.* Mr. Belt has con1municated to me (July 28th, 1874) a similar case, with the sole difference that less than half of the flowers had been perforated by the humble-bees; nevertheless, all the hive-bees gave up sucking at the mouths of the flowers and visited exclusively the bitten ones. Now how did the hive-bees find out so quickly that holes had been made ? Instinct see1us to be out of the question, as the plant is an exotic. The holes cannot be seen by bees whilst standing on the wing-· petals, where they had always previously alighted. From the ease with which bees were deceived when the petals of Lobelia erinus were cut off, it was clear t~at in this case they were not guided to the nectar by 1ts smell; and it may be doubted whether they were * 'Gard. Chron.' 1857, p. 725. CHAP. XI. PERFORATION OF THE COROLLA. 43l attracted to the holes in th fl b h d e owers of th Ph y t e o our emitted from th D' e aseolus th h 1 b em. Id they · e o es y the sense of t h . . percm ve whilst sucking the flowers i~ut~e Inr~hei~· proboscides, then reason that it would sa th p ~er manner, and the outside of the flowers aved em thime to alight on n use t e holes ? Th' seems ahnost too abstruse a t f · Is d · · n ac o reason for b ant It IkS more probable that the y saw t h e humble be es; a wor ' and understandin what th - ees imitated them and took adv!"ntage of tr;; :ere about, to the nectar. Even with animals hi he .s orter path such as monkeys we should b ~ In the scale, that all the · J.· · d 1 e snrpnsed at hearing In l VI ua s of one species within th sf pace d obf twen. ty.- four hours uncler. st oocl an act pere orme y a distinct species, and profited by it. - I have repeatedly observed with . 1 . of flowers that all the hive and hu bvlarbious n~ds · k' m e- ees which were sue Ing through the perforations fl t th w.h eth er· on the upper or under side o' f etwhe oc oroelmla ' Wi.t hkolu t thI e least hesitation.' and th'IS sh ows how' quic .. Y a I the individuals within the district had acquned the same knowledge Yet h b't . P la t · · a l comes Into y ? a certain extent, as in so many of th th . oBp e1r ahti ons of bees . D r. 0 g I e, Messrs. Farree ro anedr the t ave. ob~er~e~ in the case of l)haseolus multiflorus·* at ?ertain Individuals went exclusively to th £orations, while others of the same speeies e. ~terd-. o nly the mou ths of t h e flowers. I noticed inV IS1I8 6e1 e~actly ~he same fact with Trifolium pratense. So er- . SI.s~e~t IS the force of habit, that when a bee whicb is ~Isitin~ perf~rated flowers comes to one which has not een bitten, It does not go to the mouth, but instantly . * ~r. Ogle, ' Pop. Science Revtew, ~pril 1870, p. 1ti7. Mr Farrer, Annals and Mag. of Nat: Hi.st.' 4th series, vol. ii. 1868, p. 258. Mr. Belt in a letter to me. |