Abstract
THE interest arising out of the writings of Darwin, Lubbock, and Hermann Müller relative to the part played by insects in their oft-recurring visits to flowers has of late years attracted much attention. The subject, in fact, has created a taste for observation, and an incentive has been given to watch the frequency of visits of various species to certain flowers, and especially to the insects' choice of colours of flower. While the mere registering of visits may seem a comparatively simple one, the reason why insects should show a preference to alight upon flowers of a certain colour, or chooce certain species of plants, is a much more complicated problem than at first sight it would appear. Sir jobn Lubbook has shown by experiment that blue is the bees' favourite colour; H. Müller avers that in the Alps bees are attracted to the yellow rather than the white flowers. However this may be, certain it is that a much larger number of observations are yet needed before a positive law can be deduced. Two papers read at the last meeting of the Linnean Society (March I): one by Mr. Alf. W. Bennett, “On the Constancy of Insects in their Visits to Flowers,” and the other by Mr. R. M. Christy, “On the Methodic Habits of Insects when Visiting Flowers”—point out that a strict watch and ward is being kept on the movements of the busy bee and its kindred. Mr. Bennett states that butterflies show but little constancy in their visits, citing only a few instances to the contrary; but according to him, to some extent they seem to have a choice of colour. The Diptera exhibit greater constancy, though by no means absolute. The Apidæ, especially the hive-bee, manifest still greater constancy. From those data he infers that the ratio of increase is in proportion to the part performed by the insects in their carrying pollen from flower to flower. As respects preference for particular colours, in a series of observations Mr. Bennett has noted among the Lepidoptera that 70 visits were made to red or pink flowers, 5 to blue, 15 to yellow, and 5 to white; the Diptera paid 9 visits to red or pink, 8 to yellow, and 20 to white; Hymenoptera alighted 303 times on red and pink flowers, 126 on blue, 11 on yellow, and 17 on white flowers. Mr. Christy records in detail the movements of 76 insects, chiefly bees, when engaged in visiting 2400 flowers. He tabulates the same, and concludes therefrom that insects, notably the bees, decidedly and with intent confine their successive visits to the same species of flower. According to him, also, butterflies generally wander aimlessly in their flight: yet some species, including the Fritillaries, are fairly methodical in their habit. He believes that it is not by colour alone that insects are guided from one flower to another of the same species, and he suggests that the sense of smell may be brought into play. Bees, he avers, have but poor sight for long distances, but see well at short distances. Of 55 humble-bees watched, 26 visited blue flowers: of these 12 were methodic in their visits, 9 only irregularly so, aod 5 not at all; 13 visited white flowers, whereof 5 were methodic and 8 the reverse; 11 visited yellow flowers, of svhich 5 were methodic and 6 not; 28 visited rest flowers, 7 appearing methodic, 9 nearly so, while 12 were the contrary.
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Insects Visiting Flowers . Nature 27, 498 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027498a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027498a0