196 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex.
observed specimens of a species of Syrphus (Dipteron) visiting
Primroses, as well as a large black humble-bee with orange-
red band, which visited several flowers on three plants of
Primrose, and others on Blue Bell, Violet, and Ranunculus
ficaria. A very large striped bee visited eighteen flowers of
Primrose and Hybrid-elatior, but I saw it avoid two flowers
of true P. elatior on one plant. On April 5th last, in Westley
Wood, it being a hot day, I was surprised to see a Brimstone
butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni) visit five flowers on as many
plants of Primrose ; I also observed a Small-white butterfly
(Pieris rapa) pay a single visit to Primrose. Humble-bees, I
believe, fairly often visit Primroses on hot days, but the
butterflies perhaps did so on the strength of the proverb that
"beggars must not be choosers," there being very few other
flowers out so early.
It is perfectly evident, however, that the Primrose differs
from its nearest relatives in not depending mainly on bees
for its fertilization. On this subject I have obtained one
observation which, although it does not settle the matter, yet
may perhaps help to do so. There is a small black beetle of
about one-sixteenth of an inch long, Meligethes picipes, Sturm.,44
44 [For the verification of the name of the beetle (one of the Nitidulidae)
we are indebted to our member Mr. T. E. Billups, who has had large
experience as a collector of Coleoptera. Mr. Billups points out that the
species is very commonly found in company with Meligethes aeneus and
M. viridescens in the flowers of the Composite, such as Hawkweeds,
Dandelions, &c. Hermann Muller (' Fertilization of Flowers,' Eng. Transl.,
1883) gives a list of no less than sixty-three flowers in which species of
the genus occur abundantly. Mr. Billups says—"Their food is un-
doubtedly to a large extent the pollen of the plants, and one or two
Continental authorities upon Coleoptera are inclined to consider them
carnivorous, feeding upon the smaller insects they meet with in the
flowers." Muller notes the very varying habits of the beetles in different
flowers ; in some he says they feed upon pollen, in others that they lick
up the nectar, and of M. aeneus he observes that he had seen distinctly
with a lens this small beetle gnawing the inner surface of the petals and
stamens of Ranunculus lanuginosus. Mr, Christy's hypothesis that spe-
cies of Meligethes are the principal agents in the cross-fertilization of
Primroses is one that must be tested by observation and experiment; but,
supposing it to be true, we find then a difficulty in conceiving how the
peculiar dimorphic structure of the flowers arose, or even in comprehending