. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. May, 19ir). American lae Journal the total number in this region. At a moderate estimate there are at least ?!ilOO species of beetles in the New England States, so that less than 0 per- ccni or about !-l(i live partly or wholly on flower food. This is fortunate for many of them are such voracious feed- ers that, if they all attempted to resort to flowers, there would be little left for the bees. But why is it that so few compara- tively feed on pollen and nectar .?' Their habits and forms in many in- stances answer this question ; the tiger beetles an
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. May, 19ir). American lae Journal the total number in this region. At a moderate estimate there are at least ?!ilOO species of beetles in the New England States, so that less than 0 per- ccni or about !-l(i live partly or wholly on flower food. This is fortunate for many of them are such voracious feed- ers that, if they all attempted to resort to flowers, there would be little left for the bees. But why is it that so few compara- tively feed on pollen and nectar .?' Their habits and forms in many in- stances answer this question ; the tiger beetles and ground beetles are carniv- orous and live almost wholly on the ground; while the water tigers are aquatic and also predaceous. Many forms are scavengers, and live on de- caying animal and vegetable matter. Among the 1 'tter are the tumble-bugs, or scarab;cids, so famous in art and l"".gyptian mythology. The male and female make little balls of dung, which together they roll long distances and bury in the earth to provide food for their offspring—this is one of the few instances among insects,says Com- stock, in which "the male realizes his responsibility as a ; Very large beetles, of round stout forms with short legs are too awkward and clumsy to easily visit flowers; for example, I have seen a lady-bug try to climb a smooth flower stem half a dozen times before it finally succeeded. (Fig. 1.) Moreover most flowers have the nec- tar concealed where it is beyond the reach of beetles, which, with few ex- ceptions, have very short tongues; consequently, they are usually found on open flowers with visible or nearly visible nectar, as the plum, cherry, pear, shadbush, cornels, strawberry, and goldenrods. On the meadow sweet 42 different kinds have been captured, on the choke cherry 43, on the golden- rods 30, and on the Viburnums 81, while in Virginia 5S kinds have been collected on the Jersey tea (Cianot/uis). Truly the beekeeper would have rea- son t
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
