STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. I I 7 



bee-paras^; and, though strange as it may seem, the place in which we 

 found it is its normal position in the perfect state. If we examine this 

 curious creature we shall find that its anatomy contradicts some of the 

 most essential characteristics of the insect class. The abdomen is (as it 

 appears in the figure) a true sac, closed posteriorly, the alimentary canal 

 not extending through the body; the head and thorax are amalgamated 

 as in the crustaceans, and this cephalothorax is the part extruded when in 

 its normal position. The young are hatched from the eggs while yet 

 within the body of the parent, and make their way out through an 

 opening in the cephalothorax, thus reaching at once the external surface 

 of the bee. They are furnished with six legs and two abdominal append- 

 ages (as seen on diagram), and move freely and actively upon and among 

 the hairs with which the body of the bee is provided. You might suppose 

 from this fact that they do not pass through the true grub state as do 

 other coleopterous insects or beetles, to which order they belong, but 

 that, like the grasshoppers, they at once take the general form they are to 

 retain. But be not too hasty. The bee returning to its nest necessarily 

 carries them with it ; here they leave their host and attack the young bee 

 gnibs, and by means of their jaws bore their way into the bodies of these 

 grubs and here for the time take up their abode. 



Now a remarkable retrograde process in their life takes place. They 

 undergo a kind of metamorphosis, during which they shed their outer 

 skin, lose their legs and other appendages and become true footless grubs. 

 The two sexes now commence to diverge in form ; the female from this 

 time forward changes but little, gradually assuming the semi-larval form 

 first spoken of (represented by the illustration); and about the time the 

 bee is passing into its perfect state it thrusts its head between the abdom- 

 inal segments, as before stated. The male Siylops, on the other hand, 

 undergoes the usual regular transformations, first into a pupa, then into a 

 perfect-winged insect with six feet, and cuts its way out of its host 

 (shown on diagram). 



Almost every stage of this singular creature's history is contradictory 

 of what we understand to be the usual laws of insect life. The position 

 chosen by the female as her permanent dwelling-place, partly within and 

 partly without the bee, may be compared to a man taking up his i)erma- 

 nent abode across the window-sill of his house. The necessity for the 

 eggs hatching in the body is obvious. The reason why the alimentary 

 canal should be closed posteriorly may be imagined. We can also under- 

 stand, in part at least, why the singular changes in the larval state take 

 place. If the larvte were at first footless grubs it would be impossible for 

 them to remain on the body of the bee, hence they are furnished with 

 feet adapted to holding firmly to the hairy covering of their host. When 

 they enter the body of the bee-larva the legs and appendages would not 

 only be useless and cumbersome, but would keep the insect in which they 

 reside in a constant state of irritation. 



It appears, therefore, that all these anomalous changes are made 

 necessary in consequence of the unusual position assumed by the female 

 Stylops. Why is such an unusual habit adopted by the female? Other 



