82 MR. NEWPORT'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENUS ANTHOPHORABIA. 



merly suggested, while they were still included in the closed bee's nest. I had placed 

 nearly a hundred females, including some which had been hatched in the closed cells, and 

 others which I afterwards saw change from the nymph, in a glass tube, secured, as I be- 

 lieved, completely with a cork. For a few days the insects remained quiet, occasionally 

 voiding faeces ; thus showing that the females, at least, are destined to take food, and sur- 

 vive for some time. But at the end of ten days or a fortnight I found, to my surprise, 

 that the glass tube had become nearly empty, almost the whole of the insects I had 

 inclosed in it having escaped, although the cork had not once been removed during the 

 interval. They had contrived to insinuate themselves into slight depressions in the sides 

 of the cork, between it and the glass, as I found one or two thus in the act of escaping ; 

 while others, which had obtained their liberty, were noticed in different parts of the room, 

 one or two being found in the window and elsewhere. This fact, trifling as it is, is inter- 

 esting, as probably illustrative of the penetrating, fossorial habits of the species, and, 

 with other circumstances, leads me to believe that the insect penetrates into the closed 

 cell of the bee to deposit her eggs on the nearly full-grown larva within. 



Happening about the 20th of November, seven or eight weeks after this observation, to 

 examine a box in which I had placed some larvae of Anthophorce in partially opened cells, 

 I noticed a small parasite attached to the surface of one of them, and which, from its size, 

 I at first mistook for a larva of Monodontomerus. But on opening the box again, about a 

 week afterwards, I remarked that the parasite had but slightly increased in dimensions ; 

 while, on closer examination, I found within the cell, beside the bee-larva, three perfect 

 female Anthophorabice ; and on watching these for a few minutes, two of them seemed to 

 be engaged in oviposition. I then saw that instead of there being only one or two para- 

 sitic larvae attached to the skin of the young Anthophora, there were many, in very different 

 stages of growth ; from that which I had first observed, and which had nearly attained its 

 full size, to others which did not exceed the fifth of a line in length. I now concluded 

 that these were not the larvae of Monodontomerus, as I first supposed, but oiAnthopho- 

 rabia, an opinion which was confirmed by subsequent examination with the microscope ; 

 and this further induced me to think that the females noticed were, as they appeared to 

 be, depositing ova. I did not observe any of these larvae parasites on the young Antho- 

 phorce at the time of procuring them from their natural haunts in September, when the 

 cells were first broken and their inmates exposed, at which time they appeared to be quite 

 healthy. Nevertheless, one or two of the parasites now upon them were nearly full-grown, 

 and measured nearly a line in length, while others were so small as to be hardly recog- 

 nizable ; thus giving further reason to suppose that the eggs had been deposited and 

 hatched at different periods. The way in which this appeared to be capable of explana- 

 tion was, that some of the female Anthophorabice which had escaped from the glass tube, 

 as just stated, had sought out these larvae of Anthophorce, which lay exposed in their cells 

 in the box near to where I had placed the tube from which they escaped, and insinuating 

 themselves into the box, had at different times deposited their eggs on the young bee- 

 larva ; and that, owing to the gradually decreasing temperature of the season, the para- 

 sites produced from the eggs last deposited had been more delayed in their growth, a high 

 temperature being as necessary to the development of them as to that of the young bee. 



