Page:Darwin - The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilized by insects (1877).djvu/51

. I.

A large majority of these moths and butterflies had two or three pairs of pollinia attached to them, and invariably to the proboscis. The Acontia had seven pair (fig. 4), and the Caradrina no less than eleven pair! The proboscis of this latter moth presented an extraordinary arborescent appearance. The saddle-formed discs, each bearing a pair of pollinia, adhered to the proboscis, one before the other, with perfect symmetry; and this follows from the moth having always inserted its proboscis into the nectary in exactly the same manner, owing to the presence of the guiding plates on the labellum. The unfortunate Caradrina, with its proboscis thus encumbered, could hardly have reached the extremity of the nectary, and would soon have