LEPIDOPTERA 169 
Only a minority of the diverse visits of the wasps here mentioned are devoted to 
plundering flowers and social flowers with fully concealed nectar (C, S), while saw- 
flies only visit flowers from which they can get nectar by simply bending down 
their heads. 
As regards the colours they have acquired by natural selection, wasps on the whole 
are also to be looked upon as but little specialized flower visitors. More than three- 
quarters of the species of all their families, and in ichneumons (which as a rule 
only seek for entirely exposed nectar) even nine-tenths, are greenish, white, or 
yellow. (H. Miiller, ‘ Alpenblumen,’ pp. 519-20.) 
B. Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera). 
Hymenoptera are undoubtedly the most important of all our indigenous insects 
as regards pollination of flowers, and for that reason have been first described. 
But in respect of adaptation to flowers, they are surpassed by the Lepidoptera, since 
all these seek for nectar as their only food, whereas many Hymenoptera nourish 
Su 
Fic. 71. Adaptation of Lepidoptera to flowers (after Hermann Miller). (1) Head of Polyommatus 
phloeas Z., with proboscis half rolled up. (2) Head of Vanessa Io Z.; the laciniae and the labial palps 
have been cut off short (x 7). (3) Part of a lacinia of Macroglossa fuciformis Z., seen from the inner side 
(a, the groove); highly magnified. (4) Transverse section through the apposed laciniae of the same 
species highly magnified. aa, tube formed by the juxtaposition of the two grooves. (5) Tip of a lacinia of 
Vanessa Atalanta Z. References in (2) as in Fig. 64. 
themselves upon animal substances as well as flower-food, and not a few of them 
even prefer such a diet. 
As the Lepidoptera are exempt from the care of offspring, simply laying their 
eggs on the food-plant of the caterpillar, their proboscis is exclusively adapted for 
securing the nectar that serves as their only nourishment. In the mouth-parts of 
this order (Fig. 71), the labrum (2, /ér) and mandibles (md) are rudimentary, but 
the labial palps and first maxillae are well developed. The laciniae of the latter are 
produced to form two long half-tubes, which lie so close together that they constitute 
a closed suctorial tube. According to Kirbach, the adjacent edges of the maxillae 
are provided above and below with sickle-shaped plates lying close together, or are 
beset on the lower side with a row of double hooks, which interlock and bind these 
