CHAPTER IV. 



ENTOMOPHILOUS. 



Anton Kerner, in that delightfully written work on the 

 Natural History of Plants, says, "If, however, mere casual 

 observation of the relation between ffowers and their insnct 

 visitors is sufficient to cause aesthetic pleasure, and has stimu- 

 lated people of every age and nationality to the production 

 of works of art, it may be imagined how great must be the 

 incentive to scientific study supplied by a deeper insight into 

 these phenomena, and what extreme pleasure is derived from 

 the successful discovery of the reasons for these wonderful 

 relations, and from tracing their connection with other facts 

 of science." 



LZoologists believe that the bodies of insects are devel- 

 oped for the special purpose of visiting certain flowers. It 

 is equally true that flowers are correlated with the shape and 

 habits of insects that visit these flowers. These insects vary 

 from the small thrips, scarcely more than 1 mm. long, to our 

 largest butterflies and the still larger ones of the tropics, 

 whose expanded wings measure 15 cm. across. As such dif- 

 ferences occur in the insect world, so too there is a great 

 diversity among the flowers in odor and color. Beginning 

 with the early spring flowers to those of late autumn there is 

 a constant connection with the varied forms of insect lifej 



In order to fully understand the wonderful adaptations 

 between insects and flowers it will be necessary to consider 

 the structure of certain parts of insects. Insects have been 

 divided up into several orders. In point of importance they 



