BEES AND FLOWER S.« 



By E. L. P>oiivii;r, 

 Profcsficiir (iH Miisriini d'Histoirc yaliircTlc. Parif^. 



Tliat l)oos visit flowers is well known to ovorybody, as is the fact 

 that these eonslant visits of theirs ar(> by no nutans <hsinterested. 

 Of the flower the l)ee asks two thing's: The pollen dust from the sta- 

 mens and the suii'ared nectar, which most often is found at the l)ottom 

 of the corolla. The jiollen serves as food innncMliately, but amonu' the 

 social l)ees and very i)r()bal)ly amono- the solitary species as Avell, the 

 nectar must first imderf:^'o a series of chano^es. T\\o cane suo-ar in this 

 liquid, under the action of salivary })roducts, is transformed into 

 glucose. It acquires a peculiar taste and odor, and, as honey, is de- 

 posited by the l)ee in the cells of its hive, where it is mixed with 

 pollen to form a nourishing paste, or consumed at once by its collector. 



In their wild state adult bees live on honey and })ollen exclusively; 

 no other food will support them. TTnder domestication they ^vill 

 accei)t certain substitutes, meal in the place of pollen, and sugared 

 water instead of nectar, but, when possible, they will invariably 

 return to the flowers and feed as do their wild relations. 



Among the solitary S2:)ecies, the female bee makes this j^aste of pollen 

 and honey for hov young: among tlie social bees, especially with our 

 counnon honeybee, it is the stei'ile females or (h'ones who attend to 

 this duty. To sjx'ak more exactly I may say that the larva> of the 

 honeybee in their early stages are nourished with a peculiar jelly, 

 ri(h in albuminoids secreted h\ the drone inu'ses, and that the larva> 

 of the queen bee sul)sist on this all through their evolution. Since 

 this jelly is produced by the luirses out of the honey and j^ollen, I do 

 not exaggerate when I say that these two substances are as necessary 

 to young bees as to old. 



a An abridged translation, by permission, from Kcvue i^'rm'i'nlc ilt's Sricmcs 

 pures et appliques, Paris, April 1.5, 1904. 



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