G-S2 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLV 



It does not appear that the addition of small quanti- 

 ties of honey either npon the petals themselves or at the 

 base of the flower within appreciably increased the in- 

 spections or entrances, although if a bee chanced to dis- 

 cover this honey, its fondness for it was evinced by its 

 strong reluctance to leave. 



It is probable that the inspections are largely of a 

 visual nature, though these may be supplemented by 

 certain odors when the blossoms are more closely ex- 

 amined. Many noted observers, especially Miiller, have 

 adduced abundant evidence to prove that the visual 

 power of bees becomes very critical in their behavior 

 toward minute differences of floral structure. 



The bee Melissodes bimaculata, which is probably by 

 far the commonest of this genus in certain cotton fields 

 at Thompson's Mills, behaves somewhat differently 

 from other bees in its inspections. Its flight is swift and 

 irregular, and its entrance into a blossom is usually 

 preceded by a more careful examination than that re- 

 sorted to by bumble bees, the common honey bee, or the 

 wasp Elis plumipes. It is the usual procedure for the 

 last to fly straight into a blossom or almost drop into 

 it from above, apparently without troubling itself about 

 any preliminary examination. The bumble bees too are 

 less fastidious in their closer inspection. 



Many instances are recorded which illustrate the habit 

 of bees to profit by previous successful or unsuccessful 

 experiences. A sort of memory by association is de- 

 veloped so that older, more experienced bees often ap- 

 pear to work among blossoms to much better advantage 

 than younger bees. As an illustration of the influence 

 of .previous association upon subsequent behavior, the 

 writer cites the following interesting instance which has 

 come under his observation at Thompson's Mills, North 

 Georgia. It has been mentioned that the common honey 

 bee sooner or later discovers the outer involucral nec- 

 taries of cotton blossoms and visits them very con- 

 stantly, seemingly in preference to the inner floral 



