Notes, Reviews and Comments. 91 



already mentioned was the most abundant and also the most generally 

 infested ; there did not seem to be an individual exempted. Several 

 other species, however, had more or less adherents, those most con- 

 spicuous being Prosopis affinis and Ceratina duplet. Several infested 

 individuals of a small wasp Odynerus albophaleratus were also 

 observed. On the other hand, some species of bees seemed to be 

 exempt. Honey-bees Apis mellifica were very numerous about the 

 raspberries, but I could not find that one of these carried a larva, and 

 this was aUo the case with the large Andrena nivalis, which was abund- 

 ant. A careful eximination of the flowering plants disclosed only a few 

 of the larvae crawling about the blossoms, but the number carried by 

 the bees was quite extraordinary. The larva lurks upon the blossom 

 until a bee visits it, and then crawling actively upon the unfortunate 

 pilferer of sweets, clings firmly to its thorax. It is a slender little thing, 

 orange-red in colour, except the black eyes, and somewhat pediculus- 

 like in shape. The legs are long and provided with long claws, and 

 these enable the larva to obtain a firm hold upon the hairs with which 

 the bees are more or less clothed, and it is then transported to the cells 

 constructed by the host tor its own future brood, and therein finding 

 suitable provision, lives as a parasite, and undergoes interesting changes 

 before it appears as a beetle, the name of which I cannot give, for, 

 although I have often taken them, my knowledge of these larvae is too 

 scanty for a determination of the species. The larvae, as stated, attach 

 themselves about the thorax of the bee, and so numerous were they 

 upon this occasion that they seriously embarrassed the flight of their 

 unwilling hosts. Numerous bees could be seen dropping upon the 

 fuliaje and endeavoring to comb off with their legs the undesired swarm, 



but in vain, so lightly did the intiuders cling. Above and below they 

 clustered, at the base of the wings and among the legs, clinging to the 

 hairs of the bee or to one another. My estimate of the number carried 

 by each individual of Halictus discus was betweeen 40 and 50, and to 

 verify this I collected four individuals not more conspicuously burdened 

 than their neighbors. One of these I have pinned in my collection 

 with the swarm upon it, and the remaining three were found to cany 165 

 larvae, or an average of 55 for each bee. When we take into account 

 the hundreds, indeed I may say thousands, of these bees which were 

 similarly infested, we will get some idea of the immense number of the 

 larvae which had developed in the limited area examined. 



VV. H. H. 



