JOURNAL OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 



Vol. 4 MAY-JUNE, 1914 No. 3 



CONSPICUOUS FLOWERS RARELY VISITED BY 



INSECTS i 



JOHN H. LOVELL, 



Waldoboro, Maine 



There are many cultivated flowers adapted to winged pollinators, 

 which are rarely visited by insects although they are of large 

 size and display the most brilliant hues. Among the species 

 enumerated by Plateau as illustrations are the red geranium 

 (Pelargonium zonale Willd., hybrid Lepidopterid flowers from 

 Southern Africa), the scarlet sage (Salvia splendens Sellow, 

 ornithophilous, from Brazil), the cardinal flower (Lobelia car- 

 dinalis L., ornithophilous, from North America), and the splendid 

 gaudy flowers of Passiflora incarnata L. (probably ornithophi- 

 lous, ^ from North America) . s Other neglected flowers employed by 

 Plateau for experimental purposes were Lilium candidum L. 

 (hawk-moth flowers), Passiflora adenophylla Masters (?), (prob- 

 ably a hybrid), Oenothera speciosa Nutt. (hawk-moth flowers), 

 Pisum sativum L. (almost invariably self-fertilized, probably 

 introduced from Western Asia into Europe in prehistoric times) , > 

 Pelargonium zonale Willd., Clematis Jackmanni Jack, (hybrid 

 pollen flowers), and Petunia hybrida Hortul. (hybrid, the South 

 American species are ornithophilous?). That anthophilous 

 birds and insects have played an important part as pollinators 

 in the phylogenetic history of the flowers enumerated, in the 



1 The pollination of green or inconspicuous flowers has been considered by the writer 

 in an earlier paper. Am. Nat., 46:83-107, 1912. 



' In Alabama Trelease saw the flowers visited by humming-birds. Knuth, Paul, 

 " BliUenbiologie," 3: 510. 



» Plateau, F., " Les insectes et la couleur des fleurs," L'Annee Psychologique, 

 13:72. 



« De Candolle, A., "Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 329. 



