MORE ABOUT POLLINATION 



3" 



Bees take nectar and make honey from it. Honey is 

 nectar which has been swallowed by bees and has been 

 partly digested. They also take pollen which is largely 

 used as food for the young bees. 

 A certain part of the hind legs of 

 bees is called the pollen basket; it 

 is coated with stiff hairs and be- 

 comes covered with a mass of pol- 

 len; it may be easily observed 

 upon bees which are at work on 

 flowers. 



Moths and butterflies take only 

 nectar. They have a long pro- 

 boscis by means of which 'they 

 reach into corolla tubes or spurs 

 and suck the nectar. They are 

 not so generally useful in pollina- 

 tion as are the bees ; the bees work 

 at the flowers in a much more 

 businesslike and thorough way. 

 The night-flying hawk moths (see 

 Figure 132) are an exception to this 

 rule. " They visit flowers rapidly 

 and with the precision of bees, thus contrasting with the 

 more languid and haphazard movements of the butterflies." 

 (Cowles's Ecology.) 



b. Color and Odor. — It is believed that both the colors 

 and odors of flowers serve as means of attracting insects. 

 Of the two, odor is doubtless much more important in this 

 connection. Insects are short-sighted and are thought to 

 be usually color-blind; the honeybee is the only insect 

 which has been positively proved to have a sense of color. 



Fig. 131. — Lengthwise section 

 through a flower of nastur- 

 tium. The nectar («) is at 

 the base of the spur (s), which 

 is a prolongation of the zygo- 

 morphic corolla. Note that 

 to reach it the insect must 

 come in contact with the sta- 

 mens and pistil. 



