& 
294 THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. [parr nr 
most abundant (May, June), they expand and exhale their 
perfume most strongly in the evening, and they conceal their 
honey in so long and narrow a tube that Lepidoptera alone of our 
native insects are able to reach it. The tube, whose inferior fleshy 
part secretes honey along its middle line, is about 30 mm. long, 
and for the greater part of its length only 1 to 2 mm. wide, and | 
still further narrowed by the style; while the longest proboscides | 
among our native bees measure 21 mm. (Bombus hortorum and 
Anthophora pilipes), and among our flies only 11 to 12 mm, 
(Rhingia, Bombylius discolor). Certainly the tube becomes filled 
to past the middle with honey so that even insects with a proboscis 
15 mm. long can reach part of it; but this depth of honey is only 
attained in the evening, when heed and flies have ceased to seek 
their food. I have never seen bees or flies sucking on this honey- 
suckle ; and it is all the more plentifully visited by ; hawk-moths on 
the warm, calm evenings of May and June. I ite on a single 
plant on May 27 and 29, 1868 :— 
Lepidoptera—(a) Sphingide : (1) Sphinx convolvuli, L. (65—80), 2 speci- 
mens ; (2) S. ligustri, L. (837—42), 6 specimens ; (3) S. pinastri, L. (28—33), 
5 specimens ; (4) Deilephila elpenor, L. (20—24), 17 specimens; (5) D 
porcellus, L. (20), 1 specimen ; (6), Smerinthus tiliz, L. (23), 1 specimen ; 
(b) Noctue: (7) Diantheecia capsincola, 8. V. (23—25), 2 specimens ; (8) 
Cucullia umbratica, L. ¢ (18—22), 2 specimens ; (9) Plusia gamma, L. (15) 
1 specimen ; (ce) Bombyces: (10) Dasychira pudibunda, L. (0), 1 specimer 
Smerinthus tilie and Dasychira pudibunda which have com- 
pletely aborted proboscides were doubtless attracted by the sme 
only, without having anything to gain from the plant; Plusi 
gamma might sip a little honey from untouched flowers, and the 
four preceding species might drink deeply, but only the first three 
could drain the honey. I examined the specimens I had collecte 
not only with reference to the length of their tongues but alse 
with reference to the extent to which they were dusted with 
pollen. In all (except the two last short-lipped species), at leas 
the hairs upon the palps which cover the base of the proboscis 
were richly covered with pollen; and in several of the largei 
species the hairs and scales on the whole of the under side of the 
body from the head to the middle of the abdomen, including the 
proboscis, antenne, legs, and wings, were thickly dusted. The 
most richly coated were individuals of the first three Sphingide 
which had flown violently away, while Dianthecia, Cucullia, anc 
Plusia were the least so. The pollen-grains are rounded tetrahedre 
‘047 mm. in diameter; they adhere to the hairs and scales of the 
