An example of anrthropomorphism in science writing:
"If all those flowers, even hermaphrodite ones, which are attractive to insects, almost necessarily require their intervention…to remove the pollen from the anthers to the stigma, what unworthy members of society are these humble-bees, thus to cheat, by boring a hole into the flower instead of brushing over the stamens and pistils, the, so imagined, final cause of their existence! Although I can believe that such wicked bees may be injurious to the seedsman, one would lament to see these industrious, happy-looking creatures punished with the severity proposed by your correspondent
I will only farther remark, that after the facts here noticed, one may well doubt C. K. Sprengel's view, that the streaks and spots of colour (saft-maal) on the corolla of most nectariferous flowers, serve as guides to insects, that they may readily find out where the nectar-vessel lies. I think the bees which flew so quickly from flower to flower on the under sides of the Antirrhinum, or those which bored the pair of holes on the Pentstemon, or those which bored through calyx and corolla in the Salvia, would tell Mr. Sprengel, that although he might want such aids, they did not. I know hardly any flower which bees open and insert their proboscis into, more rapidly, than the common tall Linaria, which has a little purplish well-closed flower; I have watched one humble-bee suck twenty-four flowers in one minute; yet on this flower there are no streaks of colour to guide these quick and clever workmen.*"
Charles Darwin (1841) Humble-bees. Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette
This is from the same letter as the extract suggestng country bees appear to be less cunning than London ones. Darwin's family letters suggest he was commonly humorous in his private writing and I suspect that in this letter, though for publication, he intended at least some of the anthropomorphism here to be understood as ironic.
Read examples of anthropomorphism in science
* It is now known that bees and some other insects see into a section of what for humans is the ultraviolet range of the electromagentic spectrum. Some flowers have 'coloured' lines on the petals which act as guides for bees seeking nectar, although these are invisible to human eyes. This was not known when Darwin was writing.
