Ixxxv 



1893 by his dear friend Prof. Raphael Meldola and himself, 

 in the neighbourhood of Peasenhall, Suffolk. The insects 

 observed are well known to visit the primrose : a list of 

 records with full references will be found in Mr. Miller Christy's 

 paper in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot., xlvi (1922), pp. 105-39. 

 There is, however, so much doubt about the adequacy of 

 these visits to effect sufficient cross-fertilisation that it seems 

 worth while to add a few further observations which were 

 noted down at the time. 



" April 8, 1893. — Meldola and I saw a Humble-bee-fly 

 (Bomhylius) * visiting the primrose on the edge of Coo Wood, 

 near Peasenhall. It visited the flowers one after the other 

 most systematically, plunging its tongue in up to the very 

 base. We watched it closely and carefully. It went from 

 one flower to the other on each plant it visited, and then 

 on to the next plant, etc. We saw it suck quite a dozen 

 ■flowers, and it only sought the primrose. 



" April 15, 1893. — ^With Meldola saw another Bomhylius 

 visiting the blue flowers of ' ground-ivy,' Nepeta glechoma 

 Benth. {Glechoma hederacea L.). It went to two or three 

 successively and then disappeared. Near Heaveningham : 

 roadside bank. 



" Saw also on the same day on a roadside bank, near Lodge 

 Wood entrance, a female G. rhamni L., visiting once or twice 

 the flowers of primrose, and the male of P. napi L., also visiting 

 them once or twice. 



" The rhamni was persistently chased by a Pierid (almost 

 certainly a male P. napi) for a long time (probably a minute). 

 Then they separated, but twice or three times afterwards 

 when the same two butterflies happened to meet they flew 

 round each other for a second or two only and then separated. 

 It seemed in fact that they recognised each other." 



Prof. Poulton said that he had also often seen Bomhylius 

 visiting the primroses in his garden at St. Helens, Isle of 

 Wight. 



Mr. A. H. Hamm had written the following account of his 

 experiences. 



* Almost certainly B. discolor Mik., possibly B, major L. 



