72 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



respect) we may readily conceive the rapturous excitement 

 manifested by the new comer from the lost domicile, as 

 compared with the lassitude and despondency exhibited by 

 the lorn home-seekers ; nor can we err in assuming that, 

 after the customary greetings of recognition on the deserted 

 side, some conscious allurement must iiave been imparted to 

 the latter to induce them to confide in such cogent invocation 

 to follow the former; her object being attained as though her 

 motives had been enunciated by voice or language, and her 

 summons conveyed through such a medium. 



Fertilization of Flowers by Insects. — The fertilization of 

 flowers by insects (treated in several additional papers in 

 'Nature' by Messrs. Hermann Miiller and T. H. Farrer) has 

 also been the subject of a very remarkable Address by Sir 

 John Lubbock, before the British Association, at Belfast, 

 showing their mutual dependence upon each other, and 

 pointing out how the sustenance afforded to the latter is 

 requited by the transfer of pollen essential to the existence 

 of the former, while calling attention to many structural 

 peculiarities exhibited on either side admirably adapted for 

 this purpose. But in discussing the mouth-parts and legs 

 among the bees and wasps, upon which considerable stress is 

 laid, as exemplifying modifications of these parts from an 

 ancestral type, it should not be lost sight of that such suitable 

 adaptation of organs to the requirements of the several races 

 alluded to, is associated with many characteristic distinctions 

 in the veining of the wings, coinciding with other relations 

 of lineage and affinity, and furnishing, together with the 

 aforesaid organs, premonitory indications of differences in 

 habits and economy. "That the mouth of Prosopis" (one of 

 the solitary bees) " probably represents the condition of that 

 of the ancestors of the hive-bees before their mouth-parts 

 underwent special modifications;" and that this "may be 

 inferred from the fact that the same type occurs in other 

 allied groups, as shown in the mouth of a wasp" (our 

 " Polistes," to wit), is a deduction scarcely reconcilaljle with 

 those divergences in alary structure between the respective 

 groups, which are altogether independent of functional 

 development, and of those influences for adaptational 

 purposes which have been held to determine the survival of 

 the fittest. 



