363 
THE ACTS. OF POLLINATION AND OVIPOSITION. 
Having thus drawn attention to the most characteristic structures of 
Pronuba, we shall better understand the followmg account of the acts 
of pollination and oviposition which I quote from an article recently 
prepared for the Annual Report of the Missouri Botanic Garden: 
Though all the acts of the female are nocturnal, it is 
not at all difficult to follow them with a lantern, for, 
albeit ordinarily shy, she may be closely approached 
when about to oviposit. Her activity begins soon after 
dark, but consists, at first, in assiduously collecting a 
load of pollen. She may be seen running up to the top 
of one of the stamens and bending her head down over 
the anther, stretching the maxillary tentacles, so wonder- 
fully modified for the purpose, to their fullest extent, 
the tongue uncoiled and reaching to the opposite side 
of the stamen (Fig. 61). In this manner she is able to 
obtain a firm hold of the stamen, while the uead 1s 
kept close to the anther and moved peculiarly back and 
forth, something as in the motion of a caterpillar when 
feeding. The maxillary palpi are used in this act very 
much as the ordinary mandibles are used in other in- 
sects, removing or scraping the pollen from the anthers 
toward the tentacles. After thus gathering the pollen 
she raises her head and commences to shape it into a 
little mass or pellet by using her front legs, very much 
as a cat does when cleansing her mouth, sometimes using 
only one leg, at another time both, smoothing and press- 
ing the gathered pollen, the tentacles meanwhile stretch- 
ing and curving. After collecting all the pollen from 
one anther she proceeds to another and repeats the 
operation, then to a third and fourth, after which, 
with her relatively large load—often thrice as large as pe ermomene onal 
the head—held firmly against the neck and front trochan- jen) 4 <5 ee 
ters, she usually runs about or flies to another plant; for I have often noticed that 
oviposition, as arule, is accomplished in some other flower than that from which 
the pollen was gathered, and that cross-fertilization is thus secured. * 
Once fully equipped with this important commodity, she may be seen either 
crawling over or resting within the flower, generally with the head toward the base. 
From time to time she makes a sudden dart and deftly runs around the stamens, and 
anon takes a position with the body between and the legs straddling two of them, 
her head being usually turned toward the stigma. As the terminal portion of the 
stamens is always more or less recurved, she generally has to retreat between two 
of them until the tip of her abdomen can reach the pistil. As soon as a favorable 
point is reached, generally just below the middle, she rests motionless for a short 
time, when the abdomen is slightly raised and the lance-like ovipositor is thrust into 
the soft tissue, held the best part of a minute, while the egg is conducted to its 
destination, and then withdrawn by a series of up-and-down motions. 
* The actions here described are sometimes quite deliberate, but often they are too 
rapid to be analyzed, and the running to the top of the stamen and the motion of 
head in gathering the pollen are in time and manner much the same as in thrusting 
the pollen into the stigma. 
