202 



HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



mucli time they lose if lioney, which is put out for them, is 

 moved even slightly from its usual place. With good rea- 

 son, therefore, he adopts Sprengel's suggestion that the lines 

 and bands by which so many flowers are ornamented have 

 reference to the position of the honey. Lubbock observes 

 that these honey guides are absent in night flowers, where 

 of course they would not be visible, and would therefore be 

 useless, as for instance in certain English flowers, as Lychnis 

 vespertina or Silene nutans ; it is a curious fact that the for- 

 mer flower is white, while Lychnis diurna, which flowers by 

 day, is red. 



In some cases bees, baffled in their attempts to find the 

 honey, take a short cut and perforate the corolla with their 

 jaws. The first and only instance yet known of this curious 



Fig. 151. 



Gei-ardia perforated bj' bees. 



trait in this country is that given by Mr. W. W. Bailey in 

 the "American Naturalist," 1873. He noticed that the 

 flowers of Gerardla ]}edicularia were perforated by the bees 

 at the point indicated by p in figure 151 (also seen at a, 

 where the corolla is split open). Mr. Bailey writes, "I have 

 seen bees approach the front for a moment and then retire 



10 



