308 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



themselves to the hairs of the bees, which carried them to their 

 nests. There the larvae underwent their transformations. They 

 nourished themselves with the honey cake of the bee, and when 

 they were full grown they formed for themselves a kind of cell 

 or covering, in which they remained perfectly inactive for some 

 time. They did not become transformed into nymphs at once, 

 but remained as larvae in this quiet condition. Considering how 

 many accidents might happen to the larva of one of these beetles 

 before it can reach the position which appears to be necessary 

 for its development, it is really wonderful that any one should 

 come to the adult condition. But Nature compensates by giving 

 the females an enormous number of eggs, and Newport counted 

 4,218 in one of them. The meloe beetles lay their eggs just below 

 the surface of the ground, and when the little larvae are hatched 

 they climb upon the plants in their neighbourhood, and should 

 any insects with wings alight near them they do their best to 

 hook themselves on. They do not appear to select bees in 

 particular, although they alone can afford the growing larvae 

 their nourishment, but choose the first fly that comes, and thus 

 vast numbers are carried about which soon die from starvation. 

 " According to M. Fabre — the only naturalist who has yet ob- 

 ser\'ed these changes in Sitaris — its life-history has eleven events : 

 — I. The ^'g^ is laid in the galleries of the AiitJwpJiora. 2. A 

 little larva is hatched with six serviceable legs, which remains in 

 its birthplace without food or change of size from October to April. 

 3. In April it becomes active, and attaches itself to the males of 

 Aiithophora when they emerge from their cells, which they do 

 before the females. 4. From the male it passes to the female 

 AntJwpJiora. 5. From the female it passes to its ^gg, on which 

 it springs as the female lays it on the surface of the honey on 

 which it was to feed, where it sits as on a raft. 6. It then eats up 

 the tgg, which takes it eight days. 7. Seated on the empty shell, 

 floating on the honey, it now undergoes a metamorphosis from its 

 previous slim, active, carnivorous form, to a white fleshy grub 

 which is no longer carnivorous, but feeds on honey, and is so 

 organised as to float on the surface of the honey, mouth below, 

 spiracles above. 8. After the honey in the cell is done, it changes 

 its skin, and passes into something under a corneous envelope, like 



