OPHRYDE^—SERAPIADIN^—OPKRYS 227 



insects visited them, for he twice found abundant pollen on the stigma with both 

 poUinia intact in the anther. He suspected that they were attracted by the shining 

 "eyes ", "curiously like a drop of fluid or nectar". He noticed very minute punctures 

 in these, but was not certain that they were not due to the spontaneous bursting of 

 superficial cells. ^ These conjectures have now been superseded by actual observation. 

 It appears to be efficiently fertilised in Britain. In certain localities it is frequent, and 

 in some seasons abundant. I found plenty of evidence from pollinia removed, pollen 

 on stigma and developed ovaries that it is not infrequently visited. Darwin indeed 

 remarked that in 186 1 it was extraordinarily plentiful, but that eleven marked plants 

 only produced seven capsules. Probably the plants were so abundant that there were 

 not insects enough to go round, for Opbrjs does not attract such numbers or varieties 

 as honey-bearing plants. The hybrid O. aranijera x muscijera proves that both these 

 species are, even though rarely, visited by the same insect. 



In May, 1928, and again in 1929, at Challes-les-Eaux, near Chambery, France, 

 Colonel Evans, F.L.S., my wife and I watched O. muscijera for many hours on suitable 

 days, and saw it visited by Gorjtes mjstaceus L. a number of times, witnessing the 

 actual withdrawing of the pollinia. It is a small burrowing wasp placed by Westwood 

 in the Crabronida;. It preys on the larvae of the Cuckoo-spit or Frog-hopper insect. 

 At present it is the only loiown instance of an Ophrys being pollinated by a wasp. 

 It is hard to see when quiescent on the flower, the closed wings agreeing with the 

 contour of the lip, the gap between the thorax and abdomen seen through the wings 

 giving much the same impression as the leaden oblong marking on the middle of 

 the labellum, and the antennae resembling the thread-like petals. It alights on the 

 lip head uppermost, and rests there with quivering wings and waving antenna, 

 doubtless a preliminary phase of courtship, sometimes for three minutes. Its actions 

 made it quite clear that the wasp regarded the lip as a female of its own species. Only 

 males visited the flowers. In both years Gorytes suddenly ceased to appear. Probably 

 the females had begun to emerge, and the flowers lost their attraction. Although 

 O. aranijera, 0. arachnites and O. litigiosa were exposed at the same time, sometimes 

 in the same vase, Gorjtes took no notice of them. No other kind of insect came to 

 O. muscijera? G. mjstaceus is figured in PI. 54. 

 0. muscijera x aranijera, p. 250. 



• Ann. Nat. Hist. p. 144 (1869). 2 J.B. pp. 298-302 (1929). 



29-z 



