ROBBER BEES 



THE bees have a fine reputation one, indeed, of 

 which any insect might be proud. They gather 

 honey all the day, as the poem has it, and in virtue 

 of this praiseworthy habit are given an honoured 

 place among the good honest workers of the world. 

 But that, though the foundation of their reputa- 

 tion, is far from being the full structure of their, 

 merit. As every schoolboy knows in these days 

 of widely diffused scientific erudition, they play 

 a powerful and indispensable part in the economy 

 of the vegetable world. They are the matrimonial 

 agents of the flowers. When a bee sticks its 

 head into the heart of a flower it has a purely 

 selfish purpose. It is either collecting pollen with 

 which to feed the grubs or floral nectar for 

 storage as honey. In either case it is equally 

 useful to the flower, for the pollen adheres to its 

 head and thorax, and some of it is left on the 

 stigma of the next flower it visits. Thus the 

 flowers are cross-fertilized, and the seeds resulting 

 from cross-fertilization are both more numerous 

 and stronger than those resulting from self- 

 fertilization. 



But sometimes things do not follow quite this 

 order. Some flowers are so shaped that only bees 



