SIE J. LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 115 



Miiller considers tliat tlie yellow is the original color. Viola 

 hijlora, a small, comparatiA'cly little specialized fly-ilower, is yellow; 

 while the large, long-spurred F. calcarata, specially adapted to 

 Humble-bees, is blue. In V. tricolor, again, tlie smaller varieties 

 are whitish-yellow ; tlie larger, and more higlily developed, blue. 

 Mi/osofis versicolor, we know, is first yellow and then blue ; and, 

 according to Miiller, one variety of V. tricolor alpestris is yellow 

 when it first opens, and gradually becomes more and more blue- 

 In this case the individual flower repeats the phases which in past 

 times the ancestors have passed through. 



The only other family I will mention is that of the Grentians. 

 Here, also, while the well-known deep-blue species have long 

 tubular flowers, specially adapted to bees and butterflies, the 

 yellow G. lutea has a simple open flower with exposed honey. 



Miiller and Hildebrand * have also pointed out that the blue 

 flowers, which, according to this view, are descended from white 

 or yellow ancestors, passing through a red stage, frequently vary, 

 as if the colors had not liad time to fix themselves, and by atavism 

 assume their original color. Thus Aquilegia vulgaris, Ajuga ge~ 

 nevensis, Folygcila vulgaris, P. comosa, Salvia prateiisis, Myosotis 

 alpestris, and other blue flowers are often reddish or white ; Viola 

 calcarata is normally blue, but occasionally yellow. On the other 

 hand, flowers which are normally white or yellow rarely, I might 

 almost say never, vary to blue. Moreover, though it is true that 

 there are comparatively few blue flowers, still if we consider only 

 those in which the honey is concealed, and which are, as we know, 

 specially suited to, and frequented by bees and butterflies, we find 

 a lai'ger proportion. Thus of 150 flowers with concealed honey 

 observed by Miiller in the Swiss Alps f, 68 were white or yellow, 

 52 more or less red, and 30 blue or violet. 



However this may be, it seems to me that the preceding expe- 

 riments show conclusively that bees do prefer one color to another, 

 and that blue is distinctly their favorite. 



On Anergates. 



The life-history of the genus Anergates is, in the words of Forel, 



an unsolved enigma. The species was discovered by Schenk, who 



found a small community consisting of males, females, and workers, 



which he naturally supposed to belong to one species. Mayr, 



* ' Die Farben der Bliithen,' p. 26. 

 t ' Alpenblumen,' p. 492, 



