86 



Il'dcij — Soii>e Interrelations of Plants and Inserts. 



The Acts of Pollination and ()viposition. 



Having thus drawn attention to the nioyt characteristic struct- 

 ures of Pronuba, we shall better understand the following account 

 (if the acts of pollination and ovii^osition which I quote from an 

 article recently prepared for the Annual Report of the Missouri 

 Botanic Garden: 



" Tliough all the acts of the female are 

 nocturnal, it is not at all difficult to follow 

 them with a lantern, for, albeit ordinarily 

 shy, she may be closely approached when 

 aljout to oviposit. Her activity begins 

 soon after dark, but consists, at first, in as- 

 siduously collecting a load of pollen. She 

 may be seen running up to the top of one 

 of the stamens and l:)ending her head down 

 over the anther, stretching tlie maxillary 

 tentacles, so wonderfully modified for the 

 purpose, to their fullest extent, the tongue 

 j^ $• uncoiled and reaching to the opposite side 

 of the stamen. In this manner she is able 

 to obtain a firm hold of the stamen, while 

 the head is kept close to the anther and 

 moved peculiarly back and forth, some- 

 thing as in the motion of the head of a 

 caterpillar when feeding. The maxillary 

 palpi are used in this act very much as the 

 ordinary mandibles are used in other in- 

 sects, removing or scraping the pollen from 

 the anthers toward the tentacles. After 



Fii, 



FeiiiaU' Proimha 



yuccnsella gutlicrin 

 X5. 



pollen, 



thus gathering the pollen she raises her 

 head and commences to shape it into a little mass or pellet by 

 using her front legs very much as a cat does when cleansing her 

 mouth, sometimes using only one leg, at another time both, 

 smoothing and pressing the gathered pollen, the tentacles mean- 

 while stretching and curving. After collecting all the i)ollen 

 from one anther she i)roceeds to anotlier and rei)eats the opera- 

 tion, then to a third and fourth, after which, with her relativeh^ 

 large load — often thrice as large as the head — held firmly against 

 the neck and front trochanters, she usually runs al)Out or files to 

 another ])]ant; for I have often noticed that oviposition, as a 



