Gentry, in
speaking of the introduced Wistaria sinensis, says "that nearly every
flower had been perforated." (11/12. Dr. Ogle 'Pop. Science Review' July
1869 page 267. Bailey 'American Naturalist' November 1873 page 690.
Gentry ibid May 1875 page 264.)
As far as I have seen, it is always humble-bees which first bite 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.
Hermann Muller, however, writes to me that hive-bees sometimes bite
holes through the flowers of Erica tetralix. No insects except bees,
with the single exception of wasps in the case of Tritoma, 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 abundant supply of nectar
in the nectary of Tropaeolum tricolor, 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 Tropaeolum. Muller has observed humble-bees trying to
suck at the mouths of the flowers of Primula elatior and of an
Aquilegia, and, failing in their attempts, they made holes through the
corolla; but they often bite holes, although they could with very little
more trouble obtain the nectar in a legitimate manner by the mouth of
the corolla.
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