of the Oil Beetle, Meloe. 315 



the nests that are stored with food ; and a similar impulse leads them to 

 cling' to those Diptera which frequent the nests of the bees as parasites. '• 



But although every circumstance has tended to prove the correctness of 

 this view, which seems confirmed by the fact, that I have repeatedly obtained 

 the adult larva, and the nymph or pupa of one species, Meloe cicatricosus, 

 from among the nests of Anthophora retusa, I have endeavoui-ed to ascertain 

 whether the young Meloe is a parasite on the bee-maggot itself, or whether it 

 is nourished with the pollen stored up as food for the young bee ? With this 

 object in view, in June 1842 I took with me to Richborough, where I had 

 obtained the full-grown larva and nymph, an abundance of larvse recently 

 developed from the eggs of Meloe violaceus and Meloe proscarabceus. Pre- 

 viously to making any trial with these specimens in the nests of Anthophora, 

 I had placed a few in the cells of a piece of old honeycomb, and found that, 

 contrary to their usual habit of wandering, they remained perfectly quiet at 

 the bottom of the cells. From this circumstance I hoped to succeed with 

 them in the cells of Anthophora. 



The specimens taken with me to Richborough came from the e^g on the 

 14th of June. On the 23rd of the same month, at midday, Avhen the tempe- 

 rature of the atmosphere was 69°Fahr., I placed some of these young Meloes 

 in nests of Anthophora retusa, which contained each a bee-maggot, and a 

 large quantity of pollen paste, its proper food. The Meloes at that time had 

 been nine days from the tg^, but were perfectly healthy and active, although 

 they had not taken any nourishment. At first I believed that the experiment 

 had succeeded, as one of the specimens began immediately to attempt to 

 pierce the skin of the bee-larva with its mandibles, and, as I then sup- 

 posed, was feeding on its juices. But closer examination soon occasioned me 

 to doubt that the larvae of Anthophora are the proper food of the species with 

 which I was making the experiment. In order further to assure myself of 

 the truth, I put several larvae oi Meloe into the ceWs of Anthophora, and left 

 them for further examination. On the following day I again visited the spot, 

 but could not discover a single larva of Meloe in the nests in which I had 

 placed them. The larvae of Anthophora were still there, with their cells 

 stored with food, but the Meloes were gone. 



To ascertain more decidedly whether the young Meloe is parasitic on the 

 body of the bee-larva, I selected three specimens of larvae of Anthophora of 



VOL. XX. 2 T 



