294 



ZOOLOGY 



Adaptation 

 to flowers 



Habits of 

 bees 



Certainly the bees could not have evolved before the 

 flowers, though it is likely that primitive flowers were 

 not dependent on bees for the carriage of their pollen. 

 In Africa it has been observed that cycads, a very 

 ancient type of plants, are apparently pollinated 

 through the agency of beetles ; and we have fossil 

 beetles of vastly greater antiquity than the earliest 

 known bees. Bees are adapted to flowers in two ways : 

 their mouth parts are so constructed that they can get 

 nectar from the blossoms, and their hairs, or sometimes 

 special surfaces on the legs, are suited for the collec- 

 tion of pollen or mixtures of pollen and honey. In the 

 leaf-cutting bees and their relatives the under side of 

 the abdomen is densely covered with stiff hairs, con- 

 stituting the ventral scopa. Here is accumulated a 

 mass of usually orange or yellow pollen, which, while 

 destined for the young, also serves to pollinate the 

 flowers which the bee visits. That is to say, some of 

 the pollen gets detached and sticks to the stigma of 

 the flower, leaving in every case sufficient for the next 

 generation of bees. Thus the bee does not serve the 

 flower alone, nor the flower the bee alone, but each 

 gives to the other, - - the bee service or labor, the flower 

 material or capital. Other bees, serving the flowers 

 in similar ways, carry the pollen on the legs, while 

 even the hairs of the head may be dusted with the 

 powderlike material. The humblebee has a smooth sur- 

 face on the hind legs, fringed with hairs ; this is known 

 as the corbicula or pollen basket, and is a specialized 

 structure for carrying moistened pollen. All the work 

 is done by female bees ; the male, often differing in 

 appearance from the female, visits flowers and may 

 accidentally carry a small amount of pollen, but he is a 

 born loafer. His motto may well be, a short life and a 



