Page:Darwin - The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilized by insects (1877).djvu/52

32 been starved to death. Both these moths must have sucked many more than the seven and eleven flowers, of which they bore the trophies, for the earlier attached pollinia had lost much of their pollen, showing that they had touched many viscid stigmas.

The above list proves that many different species of Lepidoptera visit the same kind of Orchis. The Hadena dentina also frequents Habenaria. Probably all the Orchids provided with elongated nectaries are visited indifferently by many kinds of moths. Whether any of the British Orchids are fertilised exclusively by special insects confined to certain localities is very doubtful; but we shall hereafter see that Epipactis latifolia seems to be fertilised by wasps alone. I have twice observed plants of Gymnadenia conopsea, which had been transplanted into a garden many miles from its native home, with nearly all their pollinia removed. Mr. Marshall of Ely has made the same observation on similarly transplanted specimens of O. maculata. On the other hand fifteen plants of Ophrys muscifera had not one pollen-mass there removed. Malaxis paludosa was placed in a bog about two miles from that in which it naturally grew; and it had most of its pollinia immediately removed.

The list which follows serves to show that insects in most cases perform the work of fertilisation effectually. But the list by no means gives a fair idea how effectually it is done; for I have often found nearly all the pollinia removed, but kept an exact record only in exceptional cases, as may be seen by the appended remarks. Moreover, in most cases, the pollinia which