BURGLARS 297 



from the egg-shells and the earth, they start climb- 

 ing the stems of flowering plants, and continue 

 until they have reached the flower. Here they 

 wait patiently until some other insect visits that 

 flower in quest of nectar or pollen. When such a 

 visitor arrives the larva at once clings to its body, 

 and is carried away unnoticed. 



This larva is called a triungulin, because each of 

 its six feet ends in three claws, and it appears to be 

 formed solely with a view to this indispensable act 

 of its life — the clinging to a particular kind of bee. 

 But it is here that its instinct fails. In order that 

 it may justify its existence it should cling only to 

 a bee of the genus Antbophora. As a matter of fact, 

 it will cling to any insect that is sufficiently hairy 

 to enable its hooked feet to hold on. Unless it 

 catches the right bee it perishes, the success of 

 the operation depending upon the triungulin being 

 conveyed to the bee's nest. 



Let us suppose that the particular individual in 

 which we are interested has boarded the right bus, 

 so to speak, and arrived in the burrow of the Antbo- 

 phora, where there is a cell fully provisioned with 

 honey, upon which the bee now deposits a floating 

 egg. The triungulin is waiting for this act, and 

 before the bee has time to seal up the cell it slips off 

 the bee and balances itself nicely upon the bee's egg. 



At this stage of existence it is incapable of feeding 

 upon honey ; the one thing that it appears able 

 to take in the way of nourishment is the bee's egg y 

 and this it devours. The egg of a bee may appear 



