310 Mr. Newport on the Natural History 
almost completely to cover it and deprive it of the power of moving, and 
most of them remained attached to it for many hours. It was thus evident that 
their habits are parasitical; but I was unable at that time to ascertain any- 
thing further respecting them, as most of them died at the end of a fortnight 
or three weeks. On the 13th of June, in the same year (1830), I captured a 
specimen of Volucella mystacea, on which I found a parasite that agreed in every 
respect of form, size, colour and activity with. the hexapods I had then lately 
reared from the eggs of Meloé. On the 10th of July, in the preceding year 
(1829), I had taken a specimen of Osmia spinulosa, on which also I found a 
parasite precisely similar in form, size and activity to the larvee from the eggs 
of Meloé, and also to that found on Volucella, and like which, it attached 
itself more especially to the posterior part of the thorax of its victim. It 
inserted its head deeply between the thorax and abdomen, and when removed 
with the point of a pin, returned with avidity to the same spot. But the spe- 
cimen found on Osmia spinulosa differed entirely from the others in colour. 
It was deep black, with brown eyes. In this respect it closely agreed with 
the parasite found by the Rev. Mr. Kirby on Andrena fuscata*, and regarded 
by him as distinct from the yellow larva described by Linnzeust+ and Fabricius 
as Pediculus Apis, and also by M. Leon Dufour, as lately as 1828, as a 
distinct genus of apterous insects, by the name of Triungulinus Andrenetarum. 
I have no doubt of the correctness of Mr. Kirby's opinion, that the larva found 
by him on Andrena was distinct from the yellow larva of Meloé, the Pediculus: 
Apis of Fabricius; and I have little doubt also of its identity with that taken 
by myself on Osmia spinulosa§. These certainly are not the larve of either 
* Monog. Ap. Ang. vol. ii. p. 168. ; 
t Systema Naturæ, vol. ii. edit. 12, Holmiæ, 1767, no. 40. p. 1020. Linnæus refers to Frisch’s 
(Ins. fasc. 8. tab. 16) species, the colour of which is the same as that of the larvæ bred from the eggs 
of Meloë. : | 
1 Annales des Sc. Nat. 1898. 
$ Mr. Frederick Smith, who has paid much attention to the Hymenoptera, and has given several 
valuable papers on the British Bees (Zoologist, 1843, 1844 and 1845), informs me that he has frequently 
met with these hexapods on the Andrenide and on the Nomade, as well as on the dipterous genus Volu- 
cella. All the specimens he has found on the Andrenide have been black, like Mr. Kirby's species, 
and he has not met with a single yellow one on any species of that family. On the contrary, all the 
specimens he has found on the Nomade and Volucelle have been yellow, like the larvae of Meloé. This 
was the colour of the specimens described by Reaumur, Fabricius, Olivier, &c. Baron Walckenaer- 
