Jan. 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



3 



vicinity of the nests of Andrena and Halictus and 

 other wild bees in May, and again in August and 

 September. 



The eggs are laid in a mass covered 



Fig. s. 



Fig. 7. 



"Meloe ungusticoltis, male. 



Larva of Meloe. 



with earth at the root of some plant. During April 

 and early in May, when the willows are in blossom, 

 we have found the young recently hatched larva in 

 considerable abundance creeping briskly over the 

 bees, or with their heads plunged between the seg- 

 ments of the body, greedily sucking in the juices of 

 their host. Those that we saw occurred on the 

 humble-bee, Halictus and Andrena, and various flies 

 (Syrphus and Muscidas), and there is no reason why 

 they should not infest the honey-bee which frequents 

 similar flowers, as they actually are kuown to do 

 in Europe. These larvse are probably hatched out 

 near where the bees hybernate, so as to creep into 

 their bodies before they fly in the spring, as it would 

 be impossible for them to crawl up a willow-tree ten 

 feet high or more, their feet being solely adapted for 

 climbing over the hairy body of the bee, which they 

 do not leave until about to undergo their strange 

 and unusual transformations. 



In Europe, Assmuss states that on being brought 

 into the nest by the bee, they leave the bee and 

 devour the eggs in the bee-cells, and then attack 

 the bee-bread. When full-fed and ready to pass 

 through their transformations to attain the bee 

 state, instead of at once assuming the pupa and 

 imago state, as in the Trichodes represented above, 

 they pass through a hyper-metamorphosis, as Eabre, 

 a Erench naturalist, calls it. In other words, the 

 changes in form which are preparatory to assuming 

 the pupa and imago states are here more marked and 

 almost coequal with the larva and pupa states, so 

 that the Meloe, instead of passing through three 

 states (the egg, larva, and pupa), in reality passes 

 through these and two others in addition, which are 

 intermediate. The whole subject of the metamor- 

 phosis of this beetle needs revision, but Fabre states 

 that the larva, soon after entering the nest of its 

 host, changes its skin and assumes a second larva 



Second larva 



form of 



Trichodes. 



form (fig. 9), which somewhat resembles the larva 

 of the Goldsmith beetle. Newport, who with 

 Siebold has carefully described the 

 metamorphoses of Meloe, does not 

 mention this stage in its development, 

 which he calls " pseudo-chrysalis." It 

 is motionless ; the head is mask-like, 

 without movable appendages, and the 

 feet are represented by six tubercles. 

 This is more properly speaking the 

 semi-pupa, arid the mature pupa grows 

 beneath its mask-like form, which is 

 finally moulted. This form, however, according to 

 Eabre, changes its skin and turns into a third larva- 

 form (fig. 10, from Newport). After some time it 

 assumes its true pupa form (fig. 11, from Newport)> 

 and finally moults this skin to appear as a beetle 

 (fig. 7). 



Pig. 11. 



Fig. 10. 



Third larva form of 

 Trichodes. 



Pupa of Trichodes. 



Eabre has also, in a lively and well-written ac- 

 count, given a history of Sitaris, a European beetle, 

 somewhat resembling Meloe. He states that Sitaris 

 lays its eggs near the entrance of bees' nests, and at 

 the very moment that the bee lays her egg in the 

 honey-cell the flattened ovate Sitaris-larva drops 

 from the body of the bee upon which it has been 

 living, and feeds upon the contents of the freshly- 

 laid egg. After eating this delicate morsel it 

 devours the honey in the cell of the bee, and changes 

 into a white cylindrical, nearly footless grub ; and 

 after it is full-fed, and has assumed a supposed 

 " pupa " state, the skin, without bursting, incloses 

 a kind of hard "pupa" skin, which is very similar 

 in outline to the former larva, within whose skin is 

 found a whitish larva, which directly changes into 

 the true pupa. In a succeeding state this pupa in 

 the ordinary way changes to a beetle which belongs 

 to the same group of Coleoptera as Meloe. We 

 cannot but think, from observations made on the 

 humble-bee, the wasp, two species of moths, and 

 several other insects, that this "hyper-metamor- 

 phosis" is the normal mode of insect metamor- 

 phosis, and that the changes of these insects, made 

 beneath the skin of the mature larva before assuming 

 the pupa state, are almost as remarkable, though 



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