. Popular science monthly. rmost recesses of the corolla, and, at its leisure, sucks the sweetsdenied to less fortunate members of its kind. As fertilizers the beetles are not so important as the butterflies andmoths. Only a small proportion pay regular visits to flowers, thegreater number deriving their food from quite other sources. Manyspecies which do frequent flowers only effect injury, devouring, as theydo, some of their most important organs—e. g., the stamens or theovary. Others, however, and especially those whose small size admitsof their creeping into the interior of the flower, fre
. Popular science monthly. rmost recesses of the corolla, and, at its leisure, sucks the sweetsdenied to less fortunate members of its kind. As fertilizers the beetles are not so important as the butterflies andmoths. Only a small proportion pay regular visits to flowers, thegreater number deriving their food from quite other sources. Manyspecies which do frequent flowers only effect injury, devouring, as theydo, some of their most important organs—e. g., the stamens or theovary. Others, however, and especially those whose small size admitsof their creeping into the interior of the flower, frequently promotecross-fertilization, the viscid pollen adhering to the general surface oftheir body, from which it is brushed off by the stigma of the nextflower they enter. Such-flower-beetles as Anthrenus, Meligethes, Ma-lachias, and certain smaller sorts, are extremely useful in this way. In other species certain parts of the body are specially adapted forobtaining food from flowers. Thus, in the crown-beetle {Cerocoma. 598 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. Scho^erif Fig. 4, I, II), the middle of the antennge are characterizedby very strong and well-defined expansions, and are partly coveredwith hair. The palpi are very long, and the tongue is provided withtwo tufts of hair. These form together a large yellow crest on theanterior portion of the head (Fig. 4, II), In midsummer this beetleis occasionally to be met with on the flower of the milfoil and cornmarigold. If one of these beetles be caught and examined with alens, the crest is usually found to be covered with a multitude of littleyellow pollen-grains. Among the long-horned beetles the Lepturidm are specially welladapted for procuring food from flowers. The anterior part of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience, bookyear1872
