82 MR. NEWPORT'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENUS ANTHOPHORABIA. 
' merly suggested, while they were still included in the closed bee's nest. I had placed 
nearly a hundred females, including some which had been hatched in the closed cells, and 
others which I afterwards saw change from the nymph, in a glass tube, secured, as I be- 
. lieved, completely with a cork. For a few days the insects remained quiet, occasionally 
voiding faeces; thus showing that the females, at least, are destined to take food, and sur- 
vive for some time. But at the end of ten days or a fortnight I found, to my surprise, 
that the glass tube had become nearly empty, almost the whole of the insects I had 
inclosed in it having escaped, although the cork had not once been removed during the 
interval. They had contrived to insinuate themselves into slight depressions in the sides 
of the cork, between it and the glass, as I found one or two thus in the act of escaping ; 
while others, which had obtained their liberty, were noticed in different parts of the room, 
one or two being found in the window and elsewhere. This fact, trifling as it is, is inter- 
esting, as probably illustrative of the penetrating, fossorial habits of the species, and, 
with other circumstances, leads me to believe that the insect penetrates into the closed 
cell of the bee to deposit her eggs on the nearly full-grown larva within. 
Happening about the 20th of November, seven or eight weeks after this observation, to 
examine a box in which I had placed some larvæ of Anthophore in partially opened cells, 
I noticed a small parasite attached to the surface of one of them, and which, from its size, 
I at first mistook for a larva of Monodontomerus. But on opening the box again, about a 
week afterwards, I remarked that the parasite had but slightly increased in dimensions ; 
while, on closer examination, I found within the cell, beside the bee-larva, three perfect 
female Anthophorabie ; and on watching these for a few minutes, two of them seemed to 
be engaged in oviposition. I then saw that instead of there being only one or two para- 
sitic larvee attached to the skin of the young Anthophora, there were many, in very different 
stages of growth; from that which I had first observed, and which had nearly attained its 
full size, to others which did not exceed the fifth of a line in length. I now concluded 
that these were not the larvæ of Monodontomerus, as I first supposed, but of Anthopho- 
rabia, an opinion which was confirmed by subsequent examination with the microscope ; 
and this further induced me to think that the females noticed were, as they appeared to 
be, depositing ova. I did not observe any of these larvee parasites on the young Antho- 
phore at the time of procuring them from their natural haunts in September, when the 
cells were first broken and their inmates exposed, at which time they appeared to be quite 
healthy. Nevertheless, one or two of the parasites now upon them were nearly full-grown, 
and measured nearly a line in length, while others were so small as to be hardly recog- 
thus giving further reason to suppose that the eggs had been deposited and 
ed at different periods. The way in which this appeared to be capable of explana- 
tion was, that some of the female Anthophorabie which had escaped from the glass tube, 
s em — ee lagen " — which lay exposed in their cells 
themselves into the box, had at differ i ü gt je M ABEL: inna 
ANA cepe _ “ en imes eposited ‚their eggs on the young bee- 
2 pr er ES WES M temperature of the season, the para- 
ie eggs ya a ad been more delayed in their growth, a high 
ecessary e development of them as to that of the young bee. 
