Abstract
FROM a note in NATURE, Dec. 19, it appears that it has hitherto been a mooted question among entomologists whether any species of Diptera are pollen-eaters. I have often watched certain slender-bodied flies, belonging to orallied to the family of Noverers (Syrphidœ), in the act of feeding on the pollen of various flowers, which they effected by a quick jerking and grinding movement of the mandibulæ. I once witnessed the exhibition of a much more surprising taste by one of these insects, which, together with a small yellow ant, I watched for a considerable time feasting on a gout of resinous matter that had exuded from a wound in the bark of a spruce fir-tree.
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HART, W. Pollen-eaters. Nature 7, 161 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/007161c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/007161c0
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