340 Mr. Newport on the Natural History 



to the naked eye they closely resembled. They were intermingled with, and 

 adhered very tenaciously to the hairs, and walked about on the body of the 

 Andrena like the larvae of Meloe on the Anthophora, but far more slowly. 

 Mr. Smith* has published a few remarks on the larvse obtained from this 

 insect. Besides this specimen, Mr. Smith captured one other, which con- 

 tained three pupae of Stylops, from one of which a male Stylops came forth 

 on the following day. This male he has figured as the Stylops Melittce of 

 Mr. Kirby ; but there is reason to believe that, although it approaches closely 

 to that species, it may be distinct from it, and perhaps is yet undescribed. 

 Should this prove to be the case, I propose to describe it as Stylops aterrimus, 

 from its uniform and intense black colour. It resembles Mr. Kirby's insect 

 in size, general colour, shortness of the abdomen, and pedunculation of the 

 eyes, and in the front of the head being obsoletely trilobed ; but it differs in 

 having the occipital border of the head deeply emarginated, whilst in the 

 figure of Stylops Melittce^ given by Mr. Kirby this is entire. The antennae, 

 head, thorax, wings, legs and abdomen are all of a deep black. Further, it 

 may be worthy of remark, that the species of bee on which it is a parasite is 

 Andrena Trimmerana, Mr. Kirby's being Andrena nigro-a;nea. 



About the time of capturing the specimens above-mentioned, Mr. Smith 

 informs me that he took also two or three stylopized male bees, in one of 

 which there were two specimens of the parasite. Stylopized male Hymeno- 

 ptera however, he remarks, are exceedingly rare. In this he coincides with 

 Jurine and Siebold. 



The Larva of Stylops. 



The larvae of Stylops obtained from the specimen oi Andrena Trimmerana 

 I have no doubt were of the same species as the male Stylops aterrimus from 

 the same insect. The length of time which elapsed between the capture of 

 the bee on the 8th or 10th of May, and the 25th of the same month, that at 

 which the parasite began to produce the larvae, is an interesting matter for 

 consideration, with reference to the period which usually elapses between the 

 impregnation of the female and the hatching of her young. Supposing the 

 female Stylops, at the moment when the bee was captured, to have been only 



* Loc. cit. 



t Kirby, Monog. vol. i. tab. 14. fig. 11. 1, a. (loc. cit. vol. i. p. 257. No. 11.) 



