THE CONSTANCY OF THE BEE. 85 



The Constancy of the Bee. 



By George W. Ord. 



[Read 29tli December, 1896.] 



In order to explain the development of plant species, extreme 

 Darwinians have always laid great stress on the " Constancy of 

 the Bee," and the bee-selection theory is, and has always been, one 

 of the great pillars of the Law of Natural Selection. 



My attention was first drawn to this subject by a paper in 

 Science Gossip, May, 1892, in which the author, Mr. G. W. Bulman, 

 tried to show that "the curious habit of the Apidse of visiting 

 only one species of flower in a single excursion," existed only in the 

 minds of those who wrote about it. He gave detailed accounts of 

 a great number of observations which formed a remarkable series. 

 One of the bees which he watched changed 10 times in 27 visits, 

 between the following plants : — Geranium Bobertianum, Linn., G. 

 luciduni, Linn., G. nemorum% and G. sanyuineum, Linn. 



Mr. Bulman's paper struck me very forcibly at the time, and 

 I began to make observations, and have continued to do so at 

 intervals during the last five seasons. During this time I have 

 watched some hundreds of bees, and what I have observed seems 

 only to confirm the experience of Mr. Bulman. Of the total 

 number observed by me, only about 30 per cent, have proved incon- 

 stant while they were under my eye, but the fact must be taken 

 into consideration that I lost sight of the majority after they had 

 paid one or two visits to flowers. In most cases, when I was able 

 to follow the bee for any considerable time, I found that, sooner or 

 later, a change was made. This, however, was not always the 

 ease, and I have recorded several verv interesting instances of 

 constancy. One bee, wliich I watched for a long time on the 14th 

 of June this year, confined itself entirely to the flowers of the 

 Bugle, although there were numerous other flowers in the 

 neighbourhood, including Stitch wort, Hyacinth, (fee. Further- 

 more, bees which are working Willow or Lime trees never seem 

 to bother with other flowers, though, so far as I have been able to 



