THE GUESTS OF THE MAYFLOWER. 



23 



iiiing bird, though the smaller of our species, the one I find visit- 

 ing the arbutus,* is more suggestive of a bumblebee. They have 

 long tongues, curled up when not in use, through which they suck 

 the nectar of flowers. Unlike most moths, which fly at dusk or 

 after dark, the sesias are abroad in the bright sunlight. 



Occasionally one of the early spring butterflies, especially the 

 American tortoise-shell t and the mourning cloak, J may be seen 

 hovering over the blossoms. 



The insect visitors so far considered are all useful to the may- 

 flower. They fly rapidly from head to head and plant to plant, 

 carrying the pollen which sticks to them from the anthers 

 of the staminate blossoms to the stigmas of the pistillate ones, 

 thus causing the fertilization of the embryos and the develop- 

 ment of seeds. But the surface of the 

 rocky hillsides where Epigc^a is most 

 thoroughly at home swarms with ants 

 of various species wingless creatures 

 that dearly love the nectar of flowers. 

 These insects wander everywhere in 

 search of food, and are often seen try- 

 ing to get at the honey at the bottom 

 of the mayflower corollas. Could they 

 succeed, little would be left for other 

 visitors, and consequently the ants 

 would not only be of practically no 

 value as pollen-carriers for rarely 

 would one chance to wander from a 

 staminate to a pistillate blossom but they would also prevent the 

 visits of the useful bees and flies. The plant, however, has fenced 

 out these and other similar unbidden guests by an elaborate che- 

 vaux-de-frise, composed of hairs projecting slightly upward from 

 the inner surface of the corolla and the outer surface of the ovary 

 and style. It is easy for a bee, moth, or fly to push its slender 

 tongue down through these hairs to the base of the corolla, but 

 an ant flnds it very difiicult to force its body down till its mouth 

 is at the bottom. 



Fro. 8. Sectional View of May- 

 flower, SHOWING Hairs. 



The silk spider of Madagascar spin^ g'olden-colored threads, strong enough, 

 according to M. Maindron, to bold a cork lieliiiet by. A single female of the 

 species, in tbe breeding season, gave M. Cainbone about three tiiousaiid metres of 

 fine silken thread in about twenty seven days. Small textures woven of these 

 threads are used l)y the natives for fastening flowers on sunshades and for other 

 light purposes. 



* Hema 



na 



mis. 



\ Aglais milberti. 



I Vanessa antiopa. 



