(11/16. 'Gardeners' Chronicle' 1857 page 725.) Mr. Belt
has communicated 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
seems 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
that in this case they were not guided to the nectar by its smell; and
it may be doubted whether they were attracted to the holes in the
flowers of the Phaseolus by the odour emitted from them. Did they
perceive the holes by the sense of touch in their proboscides, whilst
sucking the flowers in the proper manner, and then reason that it would
save them time to alight on the outside of the flowers and use the
holes? This seems almost too abstruse an act of reason for bees; and it
is more probable that they saw the humble-bees at work, and
understanding what they were about, imitated them and took advantage of
the shorter path to the nectar. Even with animals high in the scale,
such as monkeys, we should be surprised at hearing that all the
individuals of one species within the space of twenty-four hours
understood an act performed by a distinct species, and profited by it.
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