The Making of Species 
application to flowers. They assert that the 
visits of insects are responsible for not merely 
the general colour of every flower, but also the 
various lines, spots, and other markings of 
flowers. The lines that frequently occur on the 
petals are supposed to guide the insects to the 
honey! This particular refinement of Neo- 
Darwinism, to quote Kay Robinson, ‘needs 
little discussion. Insects have very poor sight. 
You can see this when a bee or a butterfly flies 
bang against a whitewashed wall; when a wasp 
pounces upon a black spot on a sunlit floor, mis- 
taking it for a fly; or when a settled dragon-fly 
will allow you to poke it in the face with the end 
of a walking-stick, although it will be off like a 
flash if you raise your arm. There is, therefore, 
large reason to doubt whether insects can even 
see the fine lines in the throats of flowers which 
are supposed to guide them to the nectar. It is 
rather absurd, too, to suppose that such lines can 
be needed, since insects come in swarms to in- 
conspicuous and apparently scentless flowers or 
to ‘sugared’ tree-trunks in the dark. Where 
there is nectar, insects which have come to the 
feast from a distance need no pencilled lines to 
guide them over the last quarter of an inch of 
their journey.” 
Neo-Darwinians further assert that the scents 
of flowers have been developed by natural selec- 
tion because they serve to attract insect visitors 
264 
