234 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



Not unfrequently the mechanism so well adapt- 

 ed exceeds its functions and proves a veritable 

 trap, as indicated in my specimens. I have found 

 three dead bees thus entrapped in a single umbel 

 of blossoms, having been exhausted in their strug- 

 gles for escape; and a search among the flowers 

 at any time will show the frequency of this fatal- 

 ity, the victims including gnats, flies, crane-flies, 

 bugs, wasps, beetles, and small butterflies. In 

 every instance this prisoner is found dangling by 

 one or more legs, with the feet firmly held in the 

 grip of the fissure. 



Almost any bee which we may catch at random 

 upon a milkweed gives perfect evidence of his 

 surroundings, its toes being decorated with the 

 tiny yellow tags, each successive flower giving 

 and taking, exchanging compliments, as it were, 

 with his fellows. Ordinarily this fringe can hard- 

 ly prove more than an embarrassment; but we 

 may frequently discern an individual here and 

 there which for some reason has received more 

 than his share of the milkweed's compliments. 

 His legs are conspicuously fringed with the yel- 

 low tags. He rests with a discouraged air upon 

 a neighboring leaf, while honey, and even wings, 

 are seemingly forgotten in his efforts to scrape 

 off the cumbersome handicap. 



