And here comes the remarkable point,--the humble-bees
bite holes through the standard-petal, and they always operated on the
left side over the passage, which is generally the larger of the two. My
son remarks: "It is difficult to say how the bees could have acquired
this habit. Whether they discovered the inequality in the size of the
nectar-holes in sucking the flowers in the proper way, and then utilised
this knowledge in determining where to gnaw the hole; or whether they
found out the best situation by biting through the standard at various
points, and afterwards remembered its situation in visiting other
flowers. But in either case they show a remarkable power of making use
of what they have learnt by experience." It seems probable that bees owe
their skill in biting holes through flowers of all 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 and 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 humble-bees employed in cutting 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 manner, flew straight without the least hesitation to the
calyx, and sucked through the holes which had been made only the day
before by the humble-bees; and they continued this habit for many
following days.
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