CHAPTER XI.
THE HABITS OF INSECTS IN RELATION TO THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS.
Insects visit the flowers of the same species as long as they can.
Cause of this habit.
Means by which bees recognise the flowers of the same species.
Sudden secretion of nectar.
Nectar of certain flowers unattractive to certain insects.
Industry of bees, and the number of flowers visited within a short time.
Perforation of the corolla by bees.
Skill shown in the operation.
Hive-bees profit by the holes made by humble-bees.
Effects of habit.
The motive for perforating flowers to save time.
Flowers growing in crowded masses chiefly perforated.
Bees and various other insects must be directed by instinct to search
flowers for nectar and pollen, as they act in this manner without
instruction as soon as they emerge from the pupa state. Their instincts,
however, are not of a specialised nature, for they visit many exotic
flowers as readily as the endemic kinds, and they often search for
nectar in flowers which do not secrete any; and they may be seen
attempting to suck it out of nectaries of such length that it cannot be
reached by them. (11/1. See, on this subject Hermann Muller
'Befruchtung' etc. page 427; and Sir J. Lubbock's 'British Wild Flowers'
etc. page 20. Muller 'Bienen Zeitung' June 1876 page 119, assigns good
reasons for his belief that bees and many other Hymenoptera have
inherited from some early nectar-sucking progenitor greater skill in
robbing flowers than that which is displayed by insects belonging to the
other Orders.
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