i55 
on the Biology of Roridula. 
sugar in its cells, while the cells of its epidermis were free 
from it. The connective is consequently not a nectary in the 
ordinary sense of the word ; that means to say, it does not 
secrete honey on its surface, but it offers it only to insects 
which obtain their food by piercing the tissues. As our 
Capsid is not only able to do that but also to walk about freely 
on the plant, as if there were no tentacles with sticky glands, 
it is obvious that this insect is specially adapted to the 
fertilization of the flowers of Roridula. 
In order to obtain, if possible, some evidence in favour of 
this view, I examined the few specimens of the insect which 
I possessed for pollen-grains. Two specimens which I ex- 
amined did not contain any, but the third one carried quite 
a number of grains of Roridula pollen between the hairs of 
its body. 
Taking all these facts into consideration, there can be no 
doubt with regard to the relation between this insect and 
the plant. 
As stated above, there were no spiders on the specimens of 
the other species which I found in the Steenbrass river valley, 
but I noticed at once that R. Gorgonias was also inhabited by 
a Capsid, which was evidently quite different from that on 
R. dentata. As on that occasion I had provided myself with 
a muslin bag I was able to secure a larger number of the 
insects. On examining the spirits of wine in which I had pre- 
served them, I found numerous pollen grains of Roridula, and 
as the structure of the stamens of this plant, especially that of 
its connectives, is quite similar to that of R. dentata , it is 
evident that this insect lives on R. Gorgonias in the same way 
as the other one on R. dentata. 
Summing up these observations, we find that the Roridula 
catches insects in order to obtain an additional food-supply, 
but that a spider robs the plant of a share of its prey in spite 
of the sticky tentacles. 
At the same time the Capsid takes some of the juice of the 
plant, having likewise acquired immunity from the dangers of 
the glandular hairs, but the plant utilizes this otherwise 
