i66 INTRODUCTION 



Class H, and also show the same liking for dark-coloured blossoms. Anthophora 

 pilipes F. (= A. acervorum Z.), which has a proboscis 19-21 mm. long, visits almost 

 exclusively the flowers of Class Hh, with nectar concealed as deeply as possible, 

 and agrees precisely in this respect with Bombus hortorum Z., which has a 

 proboscis of the same length. Owing to its earlier appearance, however, it is 

 only found on spring-flowers, such as Corydalis cava, Pulmonaria oflScinalis, 

 Lamium purpureum, and species of Primula. Later on in the year its visits to the 

 longest-tubed humble-bee flowers are replaced by those of Bombus hortorum. 



Eucera longicomis Z., in accordance with the length of its proboscis (10-12 mm.) 

 visits bee flowers by preference, especially papilionaceous ones. This bee also shows 

 a special liking for dark-coloured flowers, and the same is true for species of Mega- 

 chile, Osmia, and most other long-tongued Apidae (except Heriades truncorum Z.). 

 Loew (' Blumenbesuch/ I, p. 54) shows that this colour-preference is not dependent 

 upon the length of the proboscis, but is a specific peculiarity. 



The long-tongued bees exhibit very great constancy in their choice of flowers. 

 I saw (' Blutenbesucher,' I, p. 4), for example, the honey-bee, for the space of several 

 minutes sink its proboscis almost every second into one flower after another of 

 Trifolium repens, without seeking out any other species. Sometifljes it spent a few 

 seconds sucking from one flower, but on an average it made thirty to forty visits 

 in a minute. 



I noticed exactly the same thing when I observed the visits made to flowers 

 by another long-tongued bee. On the 2nd of May, 1897, I had the opportunity 

 of counting, watch in hand, such visits in the case of Anthophora pilipes F. 5 

 (=Podalirius acervorum Z.). The bee visited Lamium purpureum, and had already 

 collected considerable masses of orange-yellow pollen : it now flew from flower to 

 flower of the species named, doing nothing but suck nectar. Only once, in passing, 

 it sucked from Viola tricolor var. arvensis. In two and a half minutes it made 

 seventy-two visits, so that on an average a visit lasted about two seconds. The 

 duration of the act of sucking was as long as five seconds in some flowers which 

 apparently afforded a richer booty than most others. As a rule, however, the 

 bee stayed for a second, sinking the proboscis rapidly into the base of the flower, 

 withdrawing it as rapidly, and then buzzing away to another blossom. During 

 the acts of sucking the humming noise emitted during flight was of coiu-se inter- 

 rupted, so that the number of separate visits could be determined from these 

 interruptions. As I had heard the Anthophora from one to two minutes ' before 

 I saw it, and during this time the humming was interrupted every second or two, 

 it follows that the bee exerted its activity among the flowers for at least four minutes, 

 and in this time pollinated far more than 100 flowers. 



E. Loew (' Blumenbesuch,' I, p. 93) has proved for almost all genera of bees, 

 that besides length of proboscis, some other adaptational factor helps to determine 

 the selection of flowers, and may have such an influence that, e.g., a long-tongued 



' I did not measure this period with the help of my watch, but by counting the number of my 

 respirations. As I breathed nineteen times a minute, this gave about three seconds for each 

 respiration, and afforded me an excellent way of estimating small periods of time with great 

 accuracy. 



