The Making of Species 



application to flowers. They assert that the 

 visits of insects are responsible for not merely 

 the general colour of every flower, but also the 

 various lines, spots, and other markings of 

 flowers. The lines that frequently occur on the 

 petals are supposed to guide the insects to the 

 honey! This particular refinement of Neo- 

 Darwinism, to quote Kay Robinson, " needs 

 little discussion. Insects have very poor sight. 

 You can see this when a bee or a butterfly flies 

 bang against a whitewashed wall ; when a wasp 

 pounces upon a black spot on a sunlit floor, mis- 

 taking it for a fly ; or when a settled dragon-fly 

 will allow you to poke it in the face with the end 

 of a walking-stick, although it will be off like a 

 flash if you raise your arm. There is, therefore, 

 large reason to doubt whether insects can even 

 see the fine lines in the throats of flowers which 

 are supposed to guide them to the nectar. It is 

 rather absurd, too, to suppose that such lines can 

 be needed, since insects come in swarms to in- 

 conspicuous and apparently scentless flowers or 

 to * sugared' tree-trunks in the dark. Where 

 there is nectar, insects which have come to the 

 feast from a distance need no pencilled lines to 

 guide them over the last quarter of an inch of 

 their journey." 



Neo- Darwinians further assert that the scents 

 of flowers have been developed by natural selec- 

 tion because they serve to attract insect visitors 



264 



