COMMISSION OF ERROR. 499 



same mistake ; for we are told that this bee orchis (Ophrys 

 apifera) is singular, in so far as it * is one of the few plants 

 of its order that appears to be perpetually self-fertilised, 

 never being visited by insects ' (Brown) . Erasmus Darwin 

 seems to point to something similar in the case of the South 

 American cypripedium, another orchid, which resembles a 

 spider. In a similar way bees are deceived by painted repre- 

 sentations of flowers (Millais), as well as by the artificial 

 flowers of milliners. They knock their heads against glass, 

 the physical shock producing unconsciousness (Watson) 

 the result of not discriminating between an open and closed 

 window, the presence or absence of glass. Many birds do 

 the same thing, and suffer the same kind of accidents in 

 their case frequently fatal. 



The humble bee lays eggs sometimes only to be devoured, 

 and it brings up ignorantly the larvse of intruders. This 

 is a non-recognition by them of parasites or usurpers, leading 

 to their giving a friendly reception to impudent, self-invited 

 guests that foist themselves or their progeny into the nests 

 of other species or genera, just as the cuckoo does with her 

 eggs. The queen bee commits various errors of hurry, haste, 

 or precipitancy, but they are rectified by her attendants 

 (Figuier). 



The bee and other animals are liable to deception in the 

 same way, if not to the same extent, that man is by supposed 

 premonitions, or by semblances, of storms. That is to say, 

 they commit errors of meteorological prescience. Especially 

 is its foreknowledge of, and provision against, rain liable 

 to be faulty in the bee, which dislikes wet, and avoids it 

 where possible. Some worker hive bees having deprived 

 themselves of a queen, and no royal larvse being in process 

 of development to replace her, ' tried to obtain a queen by 

 treating drone (male) larvse in the usual manner, of course 

 without effect ' (Carpenter). The queen bee sometimes makes 

 the fatal mistake, too, of laying her eggs at random (Huber). 

 Lubbock gives numerous instances of bees, as well as wasps 

 and ants, losing their way. He showed experimentally how 

 apt they are to lose their way even in short distances, and 



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