THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 227 



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surface and run up the stems of various plants, and often lodge themselves 

 in the flowers and there await the visits of bees and other insects who 

 alight to collect pollen or honey. They watch their opportunity, and 

 attach themselves with great readiness to any of these insects who may 

 come within their reach. It is astonishing with what celerity they fasten 

 themselves to their victims the instant any part of its body is accessible, 

 and with what tenacity they adhere to it, seizing it by the leg, wing, or 

 hairs of the body, and crawling up and adhering around the insertion of 

 its legs between the head and thorax or the thorax and abdomen, exciting 

 the greatest possible uneasiness in the winged insect, who vainly endeavors 

 to detach them from its body. 



Some observers are of. opinion that the parasite draws nourishment 

 from the bee on which it fastens, but the main object of this instinctive 

 attachment seems to be to get access to the cells in which the young and 

 food are stored. Once here, the young larva of Meloe is said to attack the 

 larva of the bee or other hymenopterous insect whose nest is thus invaded, 

 and being furnished with strong mandibles, they thrust them into the soft 

 parts of their victims, and prey on their substance through the wounded 

 integuments, while the young bee is nourished with the stored pollen and 

 honey. In this state, having no longer any use for their active limbs, they 

 are gradually reduced to mere tubercles, and after a change of skin, the 

 once active and sprightly creature assumes the form of a thick, fleshy 

 maggot. In this form it continues to feed on the young bees or the bee 

 bread and honey stored for their use, and after passing through some 

 remarkable changes while in the larval condition, first changing to a semi- 

 pupa, then to another form of larva, it subsequently assumes the true pupa 

 state, in which condition it remains in its snug retreat until the following 

 spring, when it bursts its bonds and appears as a beetle. 



The young Meloe larvae often attach themselves to the hairs of insects 

 which construct no cells and do not store up food for their young ; and in 

 such cases, which must be very numerous, they necessarily perish. In the 

 light of this fact we can appreciate the importance of the great fecundity 

 of the females. 



The larva of Cantharis vesicatoria is almost identical in form with that 

 of Meloe, but soon after escaping from the egg it changes from a yellow to 

 a darker hue, and finally to a deep black. 



The history of our American species is as yet very fragmentary. Dr. 

 Packard has observed the larva of Meloe angusticollis ; and found it to differ 



