of the Oil Beetle, Meloé. - 315 
the nests that are stored with food; and a similar impulse leads them to 
cling to those Diptera which frequent the nésts of the bees as parasites. 
But although every circumstance has tended to prove the correctness of 
this view, which seems confirmed by the fact, that I have repeatedly obtained 
the adult larva, and the nymph or pupa of one species, Meloé cicatricosus, 
from among the nests of Anthophora retusa, I have endeavoured to ascertain 
whether the young Meloé is a parasite on the bee-maggot itself, or whether it 
is nourished with the pollen stored up as food for the young bee? With this 
object in view, in June 1842 I took with me to Richborough, where I had 
obtained the full-grown larva and nymph, an abundance of larvae recently 
developed from the eggs of Meloé violaceus and Meloé proscarabeus. Pre- 
viously to making any trial with these Specimens in the nests of Anthophora, 
I had placed a few in the cells of a piece of old honeycomb, and found that, 
contrary to their usual habit of wandering, they remained perfectly quiet at 
the bottom of the cells. From this circumstance I hoped to succeed with 
them in the cells of Anthophora. 
The specimens taken with me to Richborough came from the egg on the 
14th of June. On the 23rd of the same month, at midday, when the tempe- 
rature of the atmosphere was 69° Fahr., I placed some of these young Meloés 
in nests of Anthophora retusa, which contained each a bee-maggot, and a 
large quantity of pollen paste, its proper food. The Meloés at that time had 
been nine days from the egg, but were perfectly healthy and active, although 
they had not taken any nourishment. At first I believed that the experiment 
had succeeded, as one of the specimens began immediately to attempt to 
pierce the skin of the bee-larva with its mandibles, and, as I then sup- 
posed, was feeding on its juices. But closer examination soon occasioned me 
to doubt that the larvze of Anthophora are the proper food of the species with 
which I was making the experiment. In order further to assure myself of 
the truth, I put several larvae of Meloé into the cells of Anthophora, and left 
them for further examination. On the following day I again visited the spot, 
but could not discover a single larva of Meloë in the nests in which I had 
placed them. The larvæ of Anthophora were still there, with their cells 
stored with food, but the Meloës were gone. 
To ascertain more decidedly whether the young Meloë is parasitic on the 
body of the bee-larva, I selected three specimens of larvæ of Anthophora of 
VOL. XX. 2T 
