THE CONSTANCY OF THE BEE.
By G.W. Bulman.
Do Bees keep to one species of flower during a single journey? There is a general consensus of opinion that they do, as the following quotations show:—
Aristotle.—"During each flight the Bee does not settle upon flowers of different kinds, but flies, as it were, from violet to violet, and touches no other species till it returns to the hive."
Dobbs.—"I have frequently followed a Bee loading the farina, bee-bread, or crude wax on its legs through part of a great field in flower, and on whatever flower it first alighted and gathered the farina, it continued gathering from that kind of flower, and passed over many other species, though very numerous in the field, without alighting on or loading from them, though the flower it chose was much scarcer than the others; so that, if it began to load from a daisy, it continued loading from the same, neglecting clover, honeysuckle, and the violet."[1]
Darwin.—"All kinds of Bees and certain other insects usually visit the flowers of the same species as long as they can, before going to another species."[2]
H. Müller.—"The most specialised, and especially the gregarious Bees, have produced great differentiations in colour, which enable them on their journeys to keep to a single species of flower."[3]
Lord Avebury.—"It is a remarkable fact that in most cases Bees confine themselves in each journey to a single species of plant."[4]
A.R. Wallace.—"Now it has been ascertained by several observers, that many insects, Bees especially, keep to one kind of
