120 MR. MILLER CHRISTY ON THE 
Generally, though not always, the insect inserts its proboscis into the 
opening of the corolla-tube and remains, as though sucking nectar, for a 
brief period ; after which it dashes away so suddenly and swiftly that the 
eye often fails to tell which way it went, and one has to look again at the 
flower to make sure that it has really gone. Often the creature appears to 
dash off in this lightning-like manner even before it has inserted its pro- 
boseis. It is not surprising that an insect distinguished by such a remarkable 
habit should have gained for itself, as it has in Pembrokeshire, the name of 
“ Primrose Sprite? *. Further, so motionless can it hover that, even when 
it has inserted its proboseis into the corolla-tube, one often remains in doubt 
whether it has actually alighted on the flower or is still hovering. My own 
observations lead me to believe that sometimes it does not alight at all 
when so engaged. Archer Briggs asserts f that an individual he watched 
visiting Primroses “rested its fore feet on the corolla, but kept the wings 
vibrating.” The precise observations of Prof. Weiss are conclusive 
that sometimes, at any rate, it does actually alight on the flower. 
In almost every instance [he says] when it visited the primrose, I saw this 
graceful insect ultimately settle on the flower, and, after its wings had come to 
rest, push its head as far as possible down the corolla-tube, and remain in that 
position for some time.... After visiting a few primroses (three or four) on the 
earlier colder days, and as many as eighteen or twenty in warmer weather, Bombylius 
rested on a dead leaf, well protected by its colouring, and cleaned off the pollen- 
grains that were adhering to its head and proboscis. 
Other small creatures which also visit (or perhaps one should say frequent) 
the flowers of all our Primulas (as noticed above) may also, for convenience, 
be treated together here. ‘They comprise several minute beetles and a Thrips. 
These are all robbers of either pollen or nectar, or of both, or else suckers of 
the sap of the plant ; and all of them seem to inhabit the flowers, rather than 
to visit them merely. 
Of these small creatures, by far the most frequent is a very small beetle, 
Meligethes picipes Sturm, which regularly frequents the flowers of all three 
species, but especially those of the Primrose, sheltering in the tubes of their 
corollas $. It is a smooth, shiny, black, thick-set insect, 14-2 mm. long, 
1 mm. broad, and about the same height. In Essex, I have met with it 
abundantly (indeed, practically always) whenever I have had occasion to 
* See Major R. O. Latham, in Nature, 5 May, 1921, p. 301. 
T Trans. Plymouth Inst. iv. (1872), p. 189. 
New Phytol. ii. (1903), p. 101. 
$ This beetle was identified for me, many years ago, by the late Mr. T. R. Billups (see 
Trans. Essex Field Club, iii. (1884), p. 196 n.) and his identification has been confirmed 
recently by the kindness of Mr. K. G. Blair, of the British Museum. The genus Meligethes 
contains many closely-allied species, nearly all pollen-eaters. . They frequent chiefly the 
flowers of the Composite, especially those-of Hieracium and Taraxacum; but, in spring, 
they are to be found in the flowers of many widely-differing plants. 
