June 1. 1911 



339 



and program of the bee-keei)ers, and gave 

 them a place on the general jirogram. 



Prof. C. E. Sanborn, the entomologist at 

 the college and exj)eriment station, has had 

 quite extensive exi)erience with bees and 

 their diseases, and is an enthusiastic mem- 

 ber of the association. He has charge of 

 the bees of the station. If Oklahoma bee- 

 keepers will rally to the supi)ort of Prof. 

 Sanborn and the association, much can be 

 done toward gettiiig in on the ground floor 

 in controlling disease, etc.. in Oklahoma. 

 The association is thoroughly organized, has 

 drafted a bee law, and is only waiting for 

 the opportune time for its introduction. In 

 the mean time the supjiort of every bee- 

 keeper in the State is needed, and that sup- 

 port can best be given by sending in the 

 membership to Arthur Rhoads, Secretary, 

 Stillwater. Okla. The present officers are, 

 X. Fred Gardiner. Oeary. President; Geo. 

 H. Coulson, Cherokee, \'ice-president; Ar- 

 thur Rhoads, Coyle, Secretary; G. E. Lem- 

 on, Nashville, Treasurer. 



HONEY-BEES AND ROSES. 



Mullein Flowers; the Robbers of the Scarlet Run- 

 ner; Bumble-bees Puncture the Nectaries; 

 Honey-bees Probably do Not. 



BY JOHX H. LOVELL. 



Mr. Webster's interesting note. i)age 258. 

 Ai)ril 15, does not call for any s])ecial rejily; 

 but I should be glad to correct the wrong 

 impression whicli. unintentionally, I have 

 given him and perhajxs some other reader. 

 I do not in the sliglitest degree doubt his 

 explicit statement that he has seen honey- 

 bees gathering polhn freely from ro.ses. 

 Why should they not do so? The roses con- 

 tain a great abundance of easily accessible 

 ])ollen. I have seen honey-bees collecting 

 jjollen from the .sjjindlesof Indian corn, and 

 from the staminate aments of the common 

 aliler. Both of these i)lants are jiollinated 

 by the wind, and contain no nectar. Mr. <i. 

 >i. Doolittle, a careful observer, related in 

 ( ii.EANiNGs some tinie ago how he had seen 

 honey-bees visit the elms in early sirring for 

 l)ollen. The flowers of the elm are also ])ol- 

 linated by the wind, and contain no nectar. 

 He said. "When I went out I thought they 

 were robbing: as there was such a roar ill 

 the bee-yard: Init u]xm looking I found the 

 bees hustling in the hives with great loads 

 of yellowish-green jjollen. . . . 1 took a 

 circuit around the apiary to see where they 

 were going, and found them headed for a 

 swamp. After breakfast I started out: and 

 when I got over there the elm-trees, which, 

 compose the timber in the swamj) to a great 

 extent, were just roaring with bees; and 

 where some of the branches came down I 

 could see the bees at work. I wish you 

 could have been there and seen them." In 

 a word, it is (juite ])robable that honey-bees 

 may visit, sooner or later, any flower from 

 which they can obtain nectar or jxillen. 



I was emi)hasizing in my article the fact 



that the roses do not contain nectar, and 

 perhaps passed over the visits of bees for 

 l)ollen too briefly. I did not. indeed, touch 

 at all on the way in which the roses are jiol- 

 linated. Mueller long ago observed that the 

 roses were \isited for })ollen by honey-l^ees, 

 bumble-bees, leaf-cutting bees, mason-bees, 

 and species of Andrena, Halictus. and 

 Prosopis. These observations have been 

 confirmed, and still other kinds of bees add- 

 ed to the list. The si)ecies of Prosopis are 

 little coal-black bees, which look not unlike 

 ants. I have seen as many as three on a 

 single rose eating pollen, but they are so 

 small that they are probably of little use in 

 pollination. Large bees, like the bumble- 

 bees, are the most efficient pollinators of 

 the roses; for when they alight on a flower 

 they can hardly fail to come in contact with 

 the stigmas, while small insects usually 

 alight on the petals or stamens, and may 

 not even touch the stigmas. They are fre- 

 quent visitors to these flowers, and I find in 

 my collection a female and worker of Bom- 

 bus terricola taken on our common wild 

 rose {Rosa hionilis) .luly 10. 



As the plums contain nectar, if there are 

 any honey-l^ees in the vicinity they will be 

 very likely to visit the flowers. In the case 

 of the small plum-orchard, which I men- 

 tioned, I intended only to say that the wild 

 bees were mistaken by the farmer for hon- 

 ey-bees, though I saw none there at that 

 time. So there are various wild bees which 

 visit the roses, which might easily be mis- 

 taken for honey-bees. In this locality, 

 when our wild rose is in liloom the honey- 

 bees are very busy bringing in nectar. In- 

 cidentally I may remark that very little is 

 known about the bee-fauna of Alabama; 

 and if he cares to investigate it, Mr. Webster 

 has a wide field before him for observation. 



The roses are also visited by flies, especial- 

 ly syrphid flies, which feed on the pollen. 

 Many beetles have likewise been taken on 

 the flowers. So common, indeed, are cer- 

 tain kinds in Eurojie that Deljiino. an Ital- 

 ian naturalist, once asserted that the geo- 

 grai)hical distriljution of the roses was de- 

 terniin^l by certain families of beetles; but 

 this, of course, was a mistake. Beetles are 

 often not content with consuming the pol- 

 len, but destroy the i)etals as well. I have 

 often seen wild roses with the corolla par- 

 tially or almost wholly eaten by small green 

 beetles (Xodonota jjnnctico/fii^). The com- 

 mon rose-bug {Macrodactt/las suhspinosus) 

 is also very destructive to roses. It is cov- 

 ered with scale-like yellow hairs, which give 

 it a yellow color. 



Among the pollen flowers, besides the 

 roses, mentioned in my ])ai)er. were the mul- 

 leins. Now. some of the species of mullein 

 contain a small quantity of nectar. They 

 are, however, visited by insects, especially 

 bees, chiefly for ]X)llen. If you will examine 

 the stamens you will find them clothed with 

 violet-colored hairs which aftbrd a good foot- 

 hold to the visitors while they are gathering 

 pollen from the anthers. In at least one 

 species no nectar seems ever to have been 



