1878. 197 



This winter I liave had tlie good luck to meet with the larva aud 

 pupa of Bomhylius major in the cells of Andrena lahialis. Having 

 come across a colony of this bee in some earth undergoing removal, 

 I met with a few pupae, which I proved to be Bombylius major, by 

 forcing one, and find it figured in Westwood's Introduction. I also 

 found a few larvae which were new to me, of a very hymenopterous 

 aspect, and which I secui^ed on general principles, thinking at the 

 time that perhaps they were some Nomada, a genus with the larvae of 

 which I am not acquainted. Along with the pupa of Bombylius, I 

 found the cast larva-skin, and the remains of the larval head attached 

 to it enabled me to recognise these larvae as those of the Bomhylius. 

 Though of hymenopterous aspect, they are at once seen to be dipterous, 

 when the head is examined. The abdominal segments very closely 

 resemble those of Bhipipliorus larva, both iu longitudinal and transverse 

 section, lateral prominences, and in having a very transparent skin and 

 contents, much filled by lobulated fat masses, between which the black 

 intestinal canal may be seen. It differs from Hymenoptera and BJii- 

 piphorus in the anterior (thoracic) segments being straight, not curved 

 forwards, aud in being rounded instead of flattened, and in the dimi- 

 nution iu size to the head taking place chiefly in the dome-shaped 2nd 

 (Ist thoracic) segment. ^The head is set into this segment and is 

 retractile : it is very small ; its centi'e is occupied by a prominent 

 wedge-shaped portion, the point of the wedge being downwards, and 

 immediately in front of the mouth. Immediately beneath this are 

 two black, very sharp, setiform jaws (?), on each side is a papillary 

 eminence (antenna ?) of three joints set iu a circle of softer tegument, 

 and immediately below project downward on each side two large palpi 

 (labrum?), looking like jaws, but having a vei'tical, not a lateral, 

 mobility, on the anterior face of each of these there is a palpus of some 

 length, apparently un jointed, set in a circle J Several very stout bristles 

 are set round the head. The six true reet are represented by stout 

 bristles ; there are two spiracles on the 2nd, and two on the 12th 

 segment, these have on one side a corneous arc marked by radiating 

 lines, making it look like a curved comb ; the larva is without other 

 appendages. It exists in the cell of Andrena, in which it has obviously 

 been reared, I am inclined to think, living on the larva of Andrena, 

 and not on its store, this I judge from the oral structure and the 

 cleanness of the cell it occupies ; not knowing what it was w^hen I 

 picked it up, I omitted to notice what other cell contents there might be. 



The pupa is larger than the larva, the latter is of a size fitting its 

 supposed food, viz., one larva of Andrena, the pupa seems at first view 



