INSECTS AND COLOUR

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1577, 22 November 1924, Page 7

INSECTS AND COLOUR

AND A STRANGE SUPERSTITION,

Wasps have a keen sense of colour. Lord Avebury placed coloured paper ovqr a wasps’ nest, with a hole to allow free entrance (says a writer in T.P.’s and Cassell’s Weekly). He constantly removed the papers to various distances from the nest, replacing them by others of different colours. The wasps flew to the coloured papers to which they had become accustomed.

Bees, too, have a very keen sense of colour, and the ability to disciminate between the variations in shades. Blues are favourites, including -pale blue and violet, and though purple reds are visited and in favour, yet scarlets are disliked. Yellows or greens are passed by if flowers of more favoured colours are present. In some of the delightful rural spots in England people still believe that bees are interested in world affairs, especially when these affairs affect their owners. Failure to inform tihe bees is a serious breach of confidence, so grievous, indeed, that they are liable to die of disappointment. To prevent disaster it is customary to visit the hives and tell the news; to decorate them on feasts and holidays; and on the occasion of a marriage or a birth to use coloured cloth; whilst a death puts the bees into mourning, and black crepe is fastened to the hives. Good news or bad, the owner taps three times, and tells all he can. It is always better to use the frontdoor key to tap with !