328 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and before I had made any further study of its habits, rny attention 

 was drawn to a quite small Black Bee (B. mastrucatus, according 

 to the nomenclature of the zoological department of the museum 

 at Stuttgart), which interested me by invariably going to the neck 

 or tube of the corolla, on the outside, and piercing it (as it 

 seemed) with its proboscis. Whether it really did so, however, 

 or only took advantage of a hole that had already been made 

 there, it was difficult to be certain of. In many cases the latter 

 plan was certainly adopted, but then it naturally would have 

 been, if the flower had been previously visited and pierced by 

 another bee. 



The movements of this small bee were very quick, nor did it 

 stay long at any one spike of the foxglove, but soon darted away 

 from it to another, usually at some distance off. Moreover, 

 during the time that I was able to watch it at any one, it 

 was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to see the first actual 

 entry of the proboscis into the tube of the flower, or to make 

 sure, between the time of this happening and that of the bee 

 settling, that the tube had not been previously perforated. On 

 one point I soon satisfied myself, viz. that the bee did not first 

 bite a hole, and then insert its proboscis into it, which, armed 

 as it is with mandibles, and accustomed to use them, it might 

 have been expected to do. 



Continuing my observations, I soon found that it was not 

 only the small Black Bee I have mentioned (B. mastrucatus) 

 that obtains the nectar or juice of the foxglove in this way, but 

 also B. terrestris, which I had before seen visiting the naked 

 ovaries, to the neglect of those still enclosed by the blossom. I 

 watched various individuals thus acting during the greater part 

 of an afternoon, and noticed that it was not every flower on 

 which they settled that they were able to perforate. In many 

 instances they would feel about with their proboscis, as though 

 seeking an aperture, and, failing to find it, fly to another one. 

 When I picked these flowers and examined them, I found that 

 they were intact, but the same bee, upon finding a hole in 

 another, would at once pass her proboscis through it. As, there- 

 fore, the bees do not use their mandibles, and must know that 

 they cannot of themselves pierce the tube of the corolla in any 

 other way, it seems evident that they consciously search for 



