44 THE PARASITES OF THE HONEY BEE. 



the larva and pupa states, so that the Meloe, instead of passing 

 through three states (the egg, larva and pupa), in reality passes 

 through these and two others in addition, which are interme- 

 diate. The whole subject of the metamorphosis of this beetle 

 needs revision, but Fabre states that the larva, soon aft^r enter- 

 ing the nest of its host, changes its skin and assumes a second 

 larva form. Newport, who with Siebold has carefully described 

 the metamorphoses of Meloe, does not mention this stage in 

 its development, which Fabre calls " pseudo-chrysalis." It 

 is motionless, the head is mask-like, without movable appen- 

 dages, and the feet are represented by six tubercles. This is 

 more properly speaking the semi-pupa, and the mature pupa 

 grows beneath its mask-like form, which is finally moulted. This 

 form, however, according to Fabre, changes its skin and turns 

 into a third larva form (Fig. 37). After some time it assumes 

 its true pupa form (Fig. 38), and finally moults this skin to 

 appear as a beetle. 



Fabre has also, in a lively and well-written account, given a 

 history of Sitaris, a European beetle, somewhat resembling 

 Meloe. He states that Sitaris lays its eggs near the entrance 

 of bees' nests, and at the very moment that the bee lays her egg 

 in the honey cell, the flattened, ovate Sitaris larva drops from the 

 body of the bee upon which it has been living, and feasts upon 

 the contents of the freshly laid egg. After eating this delicate 

 morsel it devours the honey in the cells of the bee and changes 

 into a white, cylindrical, nearly footless grub, and after it is 

 full-fed, and has assumed a supposed "pupa" state, the skin, 

 without bursting, incloses a kind of hard " pupa" skin, which is 

 very similar in outline to the former larva, within whose skin 

 is found a whitish larva which directly changes into the true 

 pupa. In a succeeding state this pupa in the ordinary way 

 changes to a beetle which belongs to the same group of Coleop- 

 tera as Meloe. We cannot but think, from observations made 

 on the humble bee, the wasp, two species of moths and several 

 other insects, that this "hyper-metamorphosis " is not so abnor- 

 mal a mode of insect metamorphosis as has been supposed, and 

 that the changes of these insects, made beneath the skin of the 

 mature larva before assuming the pupa state,, are almost as 

 remarkable as Jhose of Meloe and Sitaris, though less easily 

 observed than they. Several other beetles allied to Meloe are 

 known to be parasitic on wild bees, though the accounts of 

 them are fragmentary. 



