353 Linncean Society, 



the author concludes that Mr. Kirby's insect is the larva of some 

 species of another genus of the same family. 



The habits of the larva of Melo'e are then investigated, and the 

 effects produced on it by exposure to light are minutely detailed. 

 When light w^as totally excluded the larvae remained perfectly quiet 

 for several days, but the instant light was admitted they were in 

 motion, travelling rapidly in a direction towards it. The experiments 

 were made by enclosing larvae in a phial, which was inverted and 

 turned in opposite directions. When the phial was placed perpen- 

 dicularly they invariably ascended to the top, and when placed in a 

 horizontal direction they always ran to that end which was nearest 

 the light, even when the stopper around which they had been lying 

 was removed to allow of their escape. This influence of light Mr. 

 Newport conceives may be that which induces them to ascend the 

 yellow flowers of the dandelion and buttercup preparatory to their 

 attaching themselves to bees that alight on the flowers to collect 

 pollen, and which then carry them into their nests. This seems to 

 be the object of their attacking the bees, to be carried to the nest 

 where they are to reside as parasites, and subsist on the food stored 

 lip for the bee-larva, and not to prey on the bee itself. 



The full-grown larva of Melo'e cicatricosus is then described, and 

 also the nymph and the imago. The author has found the insect in 

 those stages in the nests of Anthophora retusa ; but he has not 

 hitherto succeeded in his attempts to rear the young larva of M. 

 violaceus and M. proscarahceus in the nests of that insect. He con- 

 cludes, therefore, that these species inhabit the nests of some other 

 bees. In the stage between the very young and the full-grown period 

 the larva is believed to be active and retain its six scaly feet, and 

 to feed on the food prepared for the young bee. In its full-grown 

 state the legs of the larva are reduced to six short tubercles. The 

 insect is then very fat, inanimate, and of an orange-yellow colour, 

 has ten pairs of spiracles, and greatly resembles the full-grown 

 Hymenopterous larva. It remains but a short time in this condition 

 before it changes to a nymph, and soon afterwards to an imago, in 

 which form it passes the winter in a state of hybernation and comes 

 forth in the spring. 



In the course of this paper, while detailing the influence of light 

 on the larva of Melo'e, Mr. Newport stated that he had been led by 

 these and other facts, which showed the great influence of light on 

 the instincts of the young animal, '* to regard light as the primary 

 source of all vital and instinctive power, the degrees and variations 

 of which may, perhaps, be referred to modifications of this influence 

 on the special organization of each animal body." This view has 

 suggested itself to him in connexion with the discovery recently 

 made by Mr. Faraday of the analogy of light with magnetism and 

 electricity, and the close relation, previously shown by Matteucci to 

 exist between electricity and nervous power, on which not only all 

 the vital actions, but also the instinctive faculties seem to depend. 



