From Thomas Belt   17 October 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