310 Mr. Newport on the Natural History 



almost completely to cover it and deprive it of the power of moving, and 

 most of them remained attached to it for many hours. It was thus evident that 

 their habits are parasitical ; but I was unable at that time to ascertain any- 

 thing further respecting them, as most of them died at the end of a fortnight 

 or three weeks. On the 13th of June, in the same year (1830), I captured a 

 specimen of Volucella mystacea, on which I found a parasite that agreed in every 

 respect of form, size, colour and activity with the hexapods I had then lately 

 reared from the eggs of Meloe. On the 10th of July, in the preceding year 

 (1829), I had taken a specimen of Osmia spinulosa, on which also I found a 

 parasite precisely similar in form, size and activity to the larvae from the eggs 

 of Meloe, and also to that found on Volucella, and like which, it attached 

 itself more especially to the posterior part of the thorax of its victim. It 

 inserted its head deeply between the thorax and abdomen, and when removed 

 with the point of a pin, returned with avidity to the same spot. But the spe- 

 cimen found on Osmia spinulosa differed entirely from the others in colour. 

 It was deep black, with brown eyes. In this respect it closely agreed with 

 the parasite found by the Rev. Mr. Kirby on Andrena fuscata* , and regarded 

 by him as distinct from the yellow larva described by Linnseusf and Fabricius 

 as Pediculus Apis, and also by M. Leon Dufour|, as lately as 1828, as a 

 distinct genus of apterous insects, by the name of TriunguUnus Andrenetarum. 

 I have no doubt of the correctness of Mr. Kirby's opinion, that the larva found 

 by him on Andrena was distinct from the yellow larva of Meloe, the Pediculus 

 Apis of Fabricius ; and I have little doubt also of its identity with that taken 

 by myself on Osmia spinulosa^. These certainly are not the larvae of either 



* Monog. Ap. Ang. vol. ii. p. 168. 



t Systema Naturae, vol. ii. edit. 12, Holmiae, 1767, no. 40. p. 1020. Linnaeus refers to Frisch's 

 (Ins. fasc. 8. tab. 16) species, the colour of which is the same as that of the larvse bred from the eggs 

 of Meloe. 



X Annales des Sc. Nat. 1828. 



§ Mr. Frederick Smith, who has paid much attention to the Hymenoptera, and has given several 

 valuable papers on the British Bees (Zoologist, 1843, 1844 and 1845), informs me that he has frequently 

 met with these hexapods on the Andrenidce and on the Nomada, as well as on the dipterous genus Volu- 

 cella. All the specimens he has found on the Andrenidee have been black, like Mr. Kirby's species, 

 and he has not met with a single yellow one on any species of that family. On the contrary, all the 

 specimens he has found on the Nomada and Volucella have been yellow, like the larvee of Meloe. This 

 was the colour of the specimens described by Reaumur, Fabricius, Olivier, &c. Baron Walckenaer 



