30 [Februavy, 



He describes how the little larva travels, by holding ou the bee 

 most firmly by aid of its mandibles, and says they are " strong, reddish, 

 curved, sharp, meeting without crossing when at rest." When com- 

 pletely flexed, the jaws do overlap very much, but the most interesting 

 item is that the inner margin of each jaw seems to have two deep 

 wide clefts or notches, and a third shallower one. 



The photograph of the hind and anterior segments shows the 

 serrated jaw. A close scrutiny of a number of specimens leaves me 

 with the belief that the real structure is not simply three notches, but 

 that there is one deep hollow and one on either side of it (or both on 

 the dorsal side) , with an interval between them, two laj)pets, apparently 

 dividing the space into three portions ; if this is so, it probably, in some 

 way, gives even a more secure hold on the hairs of the bee than the 

 simple notches would do. 



Pi-of . Mayet's figure of the mandible of 8. cnlletis (a species now 

 placed in Stenoria, Muls.) shows six simple notches. He also figures 

 the tarsus as triunguline ; in muralis there is certainly only one long 

 simple claw. His figures of the antennae and palpi would serve very 

 well also for muralis, giving, e.g., three joints to the antennae, of which 

 Fabre only mentions two ; for the other mouth parts I have not 

 succeeded in making any satisfactory dissection. 



There are two hairs about the middle of each thoracic sternite, and 

 all the segments seem to have short hairs along their posterior margins, 

 both dorsally and ventrally, three or four on either side of the middle 

 line. 



The spiracles are not described by Fabre or Mayet. They seem 

 to be veiy much like those of Meloe. The meso-thorax carries a pair of 

 large ones on its anterior border and in the lateral membrane. The 

 first abdominal segment has a pair nearly as large, situated in the 

 lateral plate. The following abdominal segments show points that are 

 possibly spiracles, probably obsolete ones, corresponding to the series 

 of small ones existing in the larva of Meloe. 



The most extraordinary structure that these little larvae present is 

 what Mayet terms the " Appareil fixafeur." Mayet describes it as 

 originating at the origin of the eighth abdominal segment, " which it 

 almost entirely covers," and Fabre shows its two corneous points as 

 continuous with the eighth abdominal tergite; but he describes the 

 organ, as I find it in these specimens, as between the eighth and ninth 

 segments, It is difiicult to believe that its situation is not the same in 

 both species. Fabre notes thas it is quite retractile beneath the eighth 



