No. .",42] 



COLOR SENSE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



85 



cana), which, according to Root, an eminent authority on 

 American apiculture, furnishes more honey than any 

 other plant known, with perhaps the single exception of 

 the white clover. 4 Other greenish, or dull colored flowers, 

 which the honey-hee was observed to visit were Ampel- 

 opsis quinquc folia, Tcucrium Scorodonia, Comarum pa- 

 lustre, Atropa Belladonna, and several species of Scro- 

 phularia. 



But of the 91 greenish or brownish lined species the 

 honey-bee was seen to visit only 27, that is, there are no 

 recorded visits of this bee to a little over seventy per cent, 

 of the listed flowers. To four species there are no rec- 

 ords of the visits of any insect. The remaining species 

 were chiefly visited by flies, sometimes minute species, 

 beetles, and the less specialized 1 fymenoptera ; hut II< - 

 dera helix was attractive to wasps and Platanthera bi- 

 folia to Lepidoptera. How meager the number of visits 

 was should be noted: Celastrus Orixa was vdsited 

 only by the domestic fly and one other species of Diptera ; 

 Alchemilla hybrida only by small Muscidae; Alchemilla 

 alpina in the Alps by one beetle and two Muscidae; Alche- 

 milla fissa in the same mountains by three Muscidae; the 

 sessile green flowers of Hernia ria glabra were visited 

 only by very small insects; the yellowish-green flowers 

 of Amarantus retroflexus by the domestic fly and one 

 beetle; Lepidium Smithii by small flies and many beetles 

 of the genus Altica; Angelica pgrcrnca by one beetle and 

 two flies; three species of Euphorbia were visited only 

 by flies ; Salsoda Soda by Syritta pipiens and microscopic 

 Diptera ; among brownish flowers Pelargonium triste was 

 visited by one fly; Vincetoxicum purpurascens only by 

 Musca domestica; the brown-violet flowers of Veratrum 

 nigrum and the reddish flowers of Neottia Nidus-avis 

 only by flies. According to this list, in a few instances 

 greenish flowers secreting nectar very freely are visited 

 by a large number of insects, but the majority of the 

 species are evidently not well adapted to entomophily. 



*Koot, A. L, "The ABC of Bee Culture," p. 38, 1903. 



