49 



to enter our bee hives. The larva devours the brood, but with the modem hive its 

 ravages may readily be detected. 



The Oil-beetle, Meloi- angusticoUis is a large dark-blue insect found crawling in the 

 grass in the vicinity of Aiidrena, HuUctus, and other wild bees in May, and again in 

 August and September. (Our readers will find this Meloe fully described in another part 

 of this Report, by Mx. Saunders.) 



Fabre has also, in a lively and well-written account, given a history of the Siiaris, a 

 European beetle, somewhat resembling Meloe. He says that Sitaris lays its eggs near 

 the entrance of bees' nests, and at the very moment the bee lays her egg in the honey 

 cell, the flattened, ovate Sitaris larva drops from the body of the bee upon which it has 

 been living, and feasts upon the contents of the freshly laid egg. After eating this deli- 

 cate morsel, it devours the honey in the cells of the bee, and changes into a white, cylin- 

 drical, nearly footless grub ; and after it is fnll-fed, and has assumed a supposed "pupa " 

 state, the skin, without bursting, incloses a kind of hard " pupa " skin, which is very 

 simihir in outline to the former larva, within whose skin is found a whitish larva which 

 directly changes into the true pupa. In a succeeding state, this pupa in the ordinary way 

 changes into a beetle which belongs to the same group of Coleoptera as Meloe. 



The history of Siylops, a beetle allied to Meloe, is no less strange than that of 

 Meloe, and is in some respects still more interesting. On June 18th, I captured an 

 Aiulretw viclna which had been " Stylopized." On looking at my capture, I saw a pale 

 reddish brown triangular mark on the bee's abdomen : this was the flattened head and 

 thorax of a female Stylops. On carefully drawing out the whole body, which is very ex- 

 tensible, soft and baggy, and examining it under a high power of the microscope, we saw 

 multitudes, at least several hundreds, of very minute larvae, like particles of dust to the 

 naked eye, issuing in every direction from the body of the parent now torn open in many 

 places, though most of them made their exit through an opening on the under side of the 

 head thorax. The Stylops, being hatched while still in the body of the parent, is there- 

 fore viviparous. She, probably, never lays eggs. It apjiears that the larvaj are hatched 

 during the middle or last of June from eggs fertilized in April. The larv;B then crawl out 

 on the body of the bee, on which they are transported to its nest, where they enter, 

 according to Peck's observations, the body of the larva, on whose fatty parts they feed. 

 Previous to changing to a pupa, the larva lies with its head turned towards that of its 

 host, but before assuming the perfect state (which they do in the late summer or autumn), 

 it must reverse its position. The female protrudes the front part of her body between the 

 segments of the abdomen of her host. This change, Newport thinks, takes place after 

 the beehost has undergone its metamorphoses, though the bee does not leave her earthen 

 cell until the follo>ving. spring. Though the male Stylops deserts his host, his wingless 

 partner is imprisoned dm-ing her whole life within her host, and dies immediately after 

 giving birth to her numerous (for Newport thinks she produces over two thousand) 

 offspring. 



As in the higher animals, bees are afflicted with parasitic worms which induce disease 

 and sometimes death. The well known hair-worm, Gordius, is an insect parasite ; the 

 adult form is about the size of a slender knitting needle, and is seen in moist soil and in 

 pools ; it lays, according to Dr. Lei<ly, " millions of eggs connected together in long 

 cords." The microscopical, tadpole-shaped young, penetrate into the bodies of 

 insects frequenting damp localities ; fau-ly ensconced within the body of their unsuspect- 

 ing host, they luxuriate on its fatty tissues, and pass through their metamorphoses into 

 the adult form, when they desert their living house and take to the water to lay their 

 eggs. In Europe, Siebold has described Gordius sublnjurcus, which infests the drones of 

 the honey-bee, and also other insects. Professor Siebold has also described Mermis 

 albicans, which is a similar kind of worm, from two to five inches long, and of a whitish 

 colour ; this worm is also found, strangely enough, only in the drones, though it is the 

 workers which frequent watery places to appease their thirst. 



The Eing-LEGGKD Pimpla (Pimpla annuUpes) Br 



In a previous Report (1874) occur descriptions and illustrations of two insects which 

 are parasitic on the larvse of the Codling-moth, which descriptions were from the fifth 



4 



