. Gleanings in bee culture . f 1910the nectaries of all the tiowers of the colum-bine in my garden were punctured, andboth bumble-bees and honey-bees extractedthe nectar through the holes. There was nodoubt that the bumble-bees i)ierced the tis-sue, but I was unable to prove that thehoney-bees did not. In a previous season I had observetl thatall the tiowers of the scarlet runner had thenectaries punctured, and that bumble-bees(Boiiibiis terricola) and honey-bees visitedthe holes constantly, not one of tiiem at-temjiting to obtain the nectar in the normalway. So in thesjjringof 1910 I jjlanted
. Gleanings in bee culture . f 1910the nectaries of all the tiowers of the colum-bine in my garden were punctured, andboth bumble-bees and honey-bees extractedthe nectar through the holes. There was nodoubt that the bumble-bees i)ierced the tis-sue, but I was unable to prove that thehoney-bees did not. In a previous season I had observetl thatall the tiowers of the scarlet runner had thenectaries punctured, and that bumble-bees(Boiiibiis terricola) and honey-bees visitedthe holes constantly, not one of tiiem at-temjiting to obtain the nectar in the normalway. So in thesjjringof 1910 I jjlanted fivehills of scarlet runner at a distance of aboutfifty feet from my ai)iary. By the last they were in bloom, and ])resented amost attractive api)earance. I examined 20racemes, but not a tiower was i)unctured. Throughout the season I kept the scarletrunner under careful surveillance, but withthe same result — none of the Mowers werel)unctured. What was the cause of this re-sult, which was diametrically opposite to. 80MK p:arly swarms. that i)reviously oliserved? For some rea-son, (luring the entire blooming period ofthe scarlet runner I saw not a single speci-men of the Bombas terrivola in my gardenin 1910. According to my observations it is:this species of bumble-bee which chiefly oralone in this locality bites holes in I attribute the absence of holes in thenectaries of the scarlet runner wholly to theabsence of this bee. Occasionally on a fairday I would see a honey-bee,or two visit theflowers in the normal way, but their visitswere rare and were not continued long. Aj)-parently they were not successful in reach-ing the nectar. Now, when we consider thegreat number of honey-bees in the vicinityI can not doubt that, if they were able, theywould have punctured the tiowers, for in thel)revious season they were very^glad to makeuse of the holes made by the bumble-V) seems to me that I liave here obtainedconclusive evidence that honey-bees cannot make
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbees, bookyear1874
