1 



HAPDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan. 1, 1S70. 



less easily observed, as those of Meloe' and Sitaris. 

 Several other beetles allied to Meloe are known to 

 be parasitic on wild bees, though the accounts of 

 them are fragmentary. 



The history of Styloids, a beetle allied to Meloe, is 

 no less strange than that of Meloe, and is in some 

 respects still more interesting. On June 18th I 

 captured an Andrena vicini which had been 

 " stylopized." On looking at my capture I saw a 

 pale reddish-brown triangular mark on the bee's 

 abdomen ; this was the flattened head and thorax 

 of a female Stylops (fig. 12, position of the female of 



Fig. 13 



Fig. 13. 



Stylops seen from 

 above. 



Abdomen of Bee, with Stylops at a. 



Stylops, seen in profile in the abdomen of the bee ; 

 fig. 13, the female seen from above. The head and 

 thorax is soldered into a single 

 flattened mass, — the baggy hind 

 body being greatly enlarged like 

 that of the gravid female of the 

 white ant (Termes), and consisting 

 of nine segments. 



On carefully drawing out the 

 whole body, which is very extensi- 

 ble, soft, and baggy, and examining 

 it under a high power of the micro- 

 scope, we saw multitudes— at least 

 several hundreds — of very minute 

 larvae, like particles of dust to the 

 naked eye, issuing in every direc- 

 tion from the body of the parent now torn open in 

 places, though most of them made their exit through 

 an opening on the under side of the head-thorax. 

 The Stylops, being hatched out while still in the 

 body of the parent, is therefore viviparous. She 

 probably never lays eggs. 



On the last of April, when the Mezereon was in 

 blossom, I caught the singular-looking male, Stylops 

 Childreni, Gray (Sg. 14 ; a, side view ; it is about 

 one-fourth of an inch long), which was as unlike its 

 partner as possible. I laid it under a tumbler, when 

 the delicate insect flew and tumbled about till it 

 died of exhaustion in a few hours. 



It appears, then, that the larvse are hatched 

 during the middle or last of June from eggs 

 fertilized in April. The larva; then crawl out on to 

 the body of the bee, on which they are transported 

 to the nest, where they enter, according to Peck's 

 observations, the body of the larva, on whose fatty 

 parts they feed. Previous to changing to a pupa, 

 the larva lives with its head turned towards that of 



its host, but before assuming the perfect state 

 (which they do in the late summer or autumn) they 

 must reverse their position. The female protrudes 



Stylops Childreni 



a. side view. 



the front part of its body between the segments of 

 the abdomen of her host, as represented in our 

 figure. This change, Newport thinks, takes place 

 after the bee-host has undergone its metamorphoses, 

 though the bee does not leave her earthen cells until 

 the lollowing spring. While the male Stylops 

 deserts its host, his wingless partner is imprisoned 

 during her whole life within her host, and dies im- 

 mediately after giving birth to her myriad (for 

 Newport thinks she produces over two thousand 

 young) offspring. 



Xenos Pec/di, an allied insect, was discovered by 

 Dr. Peck to be parasitic in the body of wasps, and 

 there are now known to be several species of this 

 small but curious family, Stylopidee, which are 

 known to live parasitically on the bodies of our wild 

 bees and wasps. The presence of these parasites, 

 which live on the fatty parts, finally exhausts the 

 host, so that the sterile female bee dies pre- 

 maturely. 



As in the higher animals, bees are afflicted with 

 parasitic worms which induce disease and sometimes 

 death. The well-known hair-worm (Gordhis) is an 

 insect-parasite. The adult form is about the size of 

 a thick horse-hair, and is seen in moist soil and in 

 pools. It lays, according to Dr. Leidy, " millions of 

 eggs connected together in long cords." The micro- 

 scopic, tadpole-shaped young penetrate into the 

 bodies of insects frequenting damp localities. Fairly 

 ensconced within the body of their unsuspecting host, 

 they luxuriate on its fatty tissues, and pass through 

 their metamorphoses into the adult form, when they 

 desert their living house and take to the water to 

 lay their eggs. 



In Europe, Siebold has described Gordius subbi- 



furcus which infests the drones of the honey-bee, 



and also other insects. Professor Siebold has also 



