THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



Wlien they first hatch they are active, louse-like forms called 

 triangulins because each leg terminates in three claws. The 

 eggs are laid on the ground near the stem of a flowering plant, 

 and as soon as the triangulins are out of the egg they climb to 

 the flowers, where they wait for the arrival of some insect. 

 (Fig. 90, No. 5.) 



Unfortunately for them, they are unable to recognize their 

 hosts, and jump aboard the first conveyance that comes along, 

 whether it is a bee or a fly, with the result that they are often 

 carried far away from the nests they are seeking to reach. 

 There is nothing for them to do but to keep on trying until they 

 either die from exhaustion or, by a happy chance, lay hold of 

 the right insect. Hundreds do perish, and to compensate for 

 this loss the female lays some L 2,000 eggs. If, however, a tri- 

 angulin is carried to the nest of a host bee it feeds on the pol- 

 len until it is transformed into a beetle. The adventures of a 

 triangulin are analogous to those of a grain of pollen. Waste- 

 ful as is this method, it succeeds much better than would seem 

 possible. 



A part of the Coleoptera are sarcophagous, or flesh-eaters, 

 and a part are plant-eaters, or phytophagous, feeding on wood, 

 sap, leaves, and other vegetable matter. The first group is 

 certainly older and more primitive than the second, while 

 among plant-eating beetles those living on wood (xylophagous) 

 are older than those feeding on foliage or flowers. Beetles 

 living on pollen and nectar are the most recent in origin of all. 



The Sarcophagous Beetles as Flower-Visitors 



Carnivorous families of beetles, especially where they live 

 on the ground, are not likely to visit flowers. None of the 

 terrestrial tiger-beetles or water-tigers, both of which are 



186 



