226 



ENTOMOLOGY 



264). A weevil (Mononychus vulpeculus) punctures the nectary, an< 

 the flowing nectar then attracts a great variety of insects. .Grass 

 hoppers and caterpillars eat .the flowers, an ortalid fly destroys the buds, 

 and several parasitic or predaceous insects haunt the plant ; in all, mon 

 than sixty species of insects are concerned in one way or another wit] 

 the Iris. 



FIG. 264. A butterfly, Polites peckius, stealing nectar from a flower of Iris versicolor. 



Slightly reduced. 



Modifications of Insects with Reference to Flowers. While the 

 manifold and exquisite adaptations of the flower for cross pollination 

 have engaged universal attention, very little has been recorded con- 

 cerning the adaptations of insects in relation to flowers. In fact, 

 the adaptation is largely one-sided; flowers have become adjusted to 

 the structure of insects as a matter of vital necessity to put it that 

 way while insects have had no such urgent need so to speak in rela- 

 tion to floral structure. They have been influenced by floral structure to 

 some extent however, and in some cases to a very great extent, as ap- 

 pears from their structural and physiological adaptations for gathering 

 and using pollen and nectar. 



