122 Mr. G. F. Scott-Elliot's notes 



and least specialised orders, has a corolla closed like 

 that of the peas, and its visitors are the regular pea- 

 flower types, Apis, three species of Bomhus, Apathus, 

 and Andrena. The Lahiatse are, again, of all orders the 

 most obviously adapted to bees, and the most constantly 

 visited by them; for instance, of the fifteen flowers of 

 this order observed by myself and friends, the visitors 

 were invariably bumble bees and hive bees, except in one 

 case, — Mentha arvensis, — where we found only Scato- 

 phaga, Siphona, Hydrofea, Lophius, and Teleplwrus. This 

 flower is, again, a water-loving form, and also of very 

 mucb simpler structure than any of the other plants of 

 this order studied. 



The flower-haunting Diptera are very much more import- 

 ant than most observers imagine in fertilisation. Thus 

 such genera as Galium, Myosotis, some species of Veronica, 

 and the smaller geraniums, particularly G. luciduni, appear 

 to be chiefly dependent on 8yrphidss for setting seed. 

 Now in Sir J. Lubbock's book, " Ants, Bees, and Wasps," 

 these Diptera are somewhat markedly left out in the 

 cold," so that a few facts, drawn from my experience, as 

 to their colour, sense, and intelligence, may be of interest. 

 I am obliged to admit that they are more frivolous than 

 bees, and perhaps visit only three flowers in half an hour, 

 during which time a Bomhus might visit at least one hun- 

 dred. On the other hand, they do not, as a rule, mix their 

 honeys, but keep pretty steadily (though not so closely 

 as a true bee) to one particular nectar. I have seen this 

 particularly with Empis vitriptennis when visiting Linuin 

 catharticwm, which was growing along with many other 

 flowers. It kept steadily to the Linums for a considerable 

 time. 



Their colour sense is quite clearly obvious from the 

 following table. The most remarkable fact in it is, that 

 not one of these sixteen Diptera is confined to yellow and 

 white flowers. Sixty-one per cent, of the flowers visited 

 by Rhingia rostrata are blue or red, and usually the 

 white flowers visited are under 50 per cent, of the 

 whole. 



