From Thomas Belt 17 October 1875
Cornwall House Ealing
October 17 1875
Dear Mr Darwin,
A short time since Mr T. C. Renshaw of Sandrocks, Haywards Heath sent me some flowers of the Tritoma containing bees & other insects that had been caught by them with the following remarks—“Yesterday my daughter pointed out that many of the bees frequenting the Tritoma had found a grave in the corolla where they are folded up like mummies & quite dead— The bee enters in as far as he can and frequently returns again as I have observed— When it does so it is evidently not stupified as they can then fly away at once— The death therefore appears to arise from some action of the organs of the flowers or from the bee being tightly packed in the flower”1
This has probably been observed before but it appears to be a contrivance for preventing the visits of useless insects that I have not myself noticed or heard of before and I enclose a few of the flowers containing insects as if new I am sure the fact will be interesting to you and if not I can only ask you to pardon me for troubling you with them2
Yours very truly | Thomas Belt
Footnotes
Bibliography
Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.
Summary
Reports observations of T. C. Renshaw on how some flowers of the Tritoma catch bees and other insects. Thinks it may be a contrivance against unbidden visitors, as insects caught are not consumed.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10203
- From
- Thomas Belt
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Ealing
- Source of text
- DAR 160: 130
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10203,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10203.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23