of the Oil Beetle, Melo. 317 
ment; and also, that its rate of growth is as rapid as its change of form is 
extraordinary. I have already stated that the perfect insect is most abundant 
about the middle of April, and deposits its eggs towards the latter end of that 
month, or in the beginning of May; that the eggs are hatched in from three 
to five weeks, according to the temperature of the season; and that the larvae 
come forth at the end of May, or in the beginning of June. This is the 
period when the Anthophore are most busily employed in constructing and 
storing their nests, in places that are constantly exposed to the sun, and 
when many of their eggs are already hatched. I have little doubt that it is 
at this period that the Meloé attaches itself to the parent bee when she alights 
on the flowers for pollen, and is conveyed by her into her nest while storing 
it with food, as suggested by Latreille. The growth of the bee-maggot itself 
at this period of the year is exceedingly rapid ; and this rapidity is owing as 
much to the very high temperature of its cell —(which I have elsewhere* shown 
sometimes exceeds 80? Fahr.), and also to the powerful influence of the light 
of the morning and midday sun, to which the banks where the nests are con- 
structed are exposed,—as to'ts nutritious food. Like circumstances appear to 
hasten the growth of the larvæ of Meloë. The full-grown bee-larve are found 
in abundance in the month of July, and many of them have already changed 
to nymphs by the beginning of August. It is at this period that I have 
obtained many full-grown larve of Meloë in cells surrounded by those of 
Anthophora. From these facts it is fair to conclude that those Meloés which 
are developed from the first laying of eggs arrive at their full growth within 
a very few weeks, as I have invariably found the full-grown larve by the 
middle of August, at which time also, like the Anthophore, many have already 
changed to the state of nymphs. "The shortness of the period which seems 
thus to be occupied in the larva state, and the consequent rapidity of the 
almost total change of form which it undergoes, may in part account for the 
circumstance that the full-grown larva has hitherto so entirely escaped the 
observations of naturalists. 
After many fruitless attempts, through twelve years, to find specimens of the 
larva of Meloé in a stage intermediate between the very young and the adult ` 
form, I had almost despaired of success, until, in the present autumn, in 
October last, on visiting the same bank at Richborough from which I have 
: * Phil. Trans. part 2, 1837, tab. 3. p. 279. 
2T2 
