PARASITE INSECTS. 67 



a quarter of an inch in length, the head of which I 

 had mistaken tor an acarus! {hee-louse). After I 

 had examined one specimen, I attempted to extract 

 a second; and the reader may imagine how greatly 

 my astonishment was increased, when, after I had 

 drawn it out but a little way, I saw its skin burst, 

 and a head as black as ink, with large staring eyes 

 and antennae, consisting of two branches, break forth, 

 and move itself briskly from side to side. It looked 

 like a little imp of darkness just enierged from the 

 infernal regions. My eagerness to set tree from its 

 confinement this extraordinary animal may be easily 

 conjectured. Indeed I was impatient to become 

 better acquainted with so singular a creature. When 

 it was completely disengaged, and I had secured it 

 from making its escape, I set myself to examine it as 

 accurately as possible; and I found, after a careful 

 inquiry, that I had got a nondescript, whose very 

 class seemed dubious.'* Of the manner in which 

 this singular insect [Stijlops) introduced its eggs 

 into the body of a bee nothing is yet known, and its 

 rarity puts it out of the reach of the most eager 

 observers. Several species of the same genus have 

 since been found near London, and an allied genus 

 {Xejios) has since been discovered parasite in wasps 

 by Professor Peck, in America. 



Bee Tarasite. (Stylops Melitta, Kirby.) 



De Geer was one day much surprised to ob- 

 serve a small white grub sucking the body of a young 

 spider (Epeira diadema), having attached itself 



* Monogr. Ap. Angl. ii, 113. 



