FLOWER-HAUNTING INSECTS 249 



I have made it my business for some years to hunt 

 out the larvae of our common Insects. I have searched 

 the waters, both stagnant and flowing, and have pried 

 into all accumulations of decaying organic matter 

 that I have come across. I have particularly attended 

 to the early stages of the Diptera. But I have to 

 confess that nineteen-twentieths of the Diptera now 

 buzzing about in my garden are known to me, if at 

 all, only as items in a catalogue. No doubt a large 

 proportion have been reared close at hand. But they 

 are so well hidden, and the naturalist is so blind, that 

 it is only when he sees the swarms of winged Insects 

 that he becomes conscious of the multitude of larvae 

 and pupa; which he has overlooked. 



It is interesting to note that Insects of very different 

 kinds haunt flowers for honey or pollen. The Insects 

 just enumerated pass the larval stage in various situa- 

 tions. Some feed on green leaves, some on decaying 

 animal matter, one haunts the nests of Humble-bees 

 as a parasite, some live in stagnant pools. But though 

 they are so widely separated during the feeding-stage, 

 the quest of honey brings them together, as soon as 

 they have got their wings. 



The honey-sucking Insects are mainly Lepidoptera, 

 Bees and Diptera. With unimportant exceptions, all 

 Lepidoptera, which feed at all, visit flowers. Bees 

 make the greatest use of honey and pollen, feeding 

 upon it in all stages. They possess the most elaborate 

 collecting apparatus, and it is the Bees which have 

 acted most powerfully upon the organisation of flowers. 

 The honey-sucking Flies are few in number, but of 

 considerable practical importance. The form, colour, 



