324 Mr. Newport on the Natural History 



{Ranunculus acris, L.), in a damp field at Bishop's wood, Hampstead, that 

 he rniglit have collected thousands of them, there being often as many as 

 twenty specimens in the corolla of a single flower*. But he never found a 

 yellow-coloured specimen on any of the Andrenidoe. Like myself, he has 

 taken the yellow-coloured ones on Folucella, the dipterous parasite of the 

 nests oi Bombi; on the Nomadce, themselves parasitic on other bees, chiefly 

 Eucera, Andrena and Colletesf, and also on the Halicti. It was on these 

 genera that yellow-coloured larvae were found by Goedart|, Frisch§, Reau- 

 mur ||, DeGeer^, Walckenaer** and De Tigny ff. Latreille|:{:, when speaking 

 of those described by DeGeer, says, that he has himself many times met with 

 these larvae crowded together on grass ; at the roots of which, as I have 

 already shown, the Meloe always deposits her eggs, and the young, quickly 

 after they are hatched, ascend from thence into the flowers of the Ranunculus 

 and Taraxacum, in which I have myself detected them. 



On examining the black-coloured specimens, which Mr. Smith obtained from 

 the Andrenidce, I have found that they are perfectly distinct from those which 

 I know are produced from the eggs of the three species of Meloe already 

 mentioned. They are of larger size, and are of a deep jet-black colour, except- 

 ing only the legs, which are dark testaceous. Thus they are identical in 

 character with the supposed Pediculus Melittce, taken by Mr. Kirby also on 

 Andrena. They approach closely in general appearance to the yellow speci- 

 mens found on Nomada, which I am satisfied are the young of some species 

 of Meloe. They have a similar general form of body, and the same number of 

 segments and of caudal setae, the exterior pair of which are the shortest. They 

 both have large and powerful thighs, long convex tibiae, and long claw-like 

 tarsi, each formed of three digitations, of which the middle digitation only 



* Trana. Ent. Soc. Lond. vol. iii. p. 294. 



t Trans. Ent. Soc. vol. iii. part 4. p. 294. I have taken Nomada Sheppardana in the nest of Colletes, 

 and Mr. Smith has taken other Nomada in those of Eucera, Andrena and Colletes (see Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 vol. iii. p. 293, 1843 ; and Zoologist. June 1844, pp. 587-606). 



X M^moires Nat. Hist. Ins. t. ii. p. 180. § Insecten, fasc. vi. p. 15. 



II Memoires, tome iv. p. 490. % Memoires, tome v. p. 8, 



** Mem. sur le gen. Halictus, 1817, p. 85. t+ Hist. Ins. tome vii. p. 647. 



U Hist. Nat. des Crust, et des Ins. t. x. p. 380. 



