THE 



ENTOMOLOGIST'S 

 MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



SECOND SERIES-VOL. III. 



[VOLUME XXVIII]. 



STYLOPIZED BEES. 



BY R. C. L. PERKINS. 



There are, I believe, few Hymenopterists who are not interested 

 in stylopized bees, both on account of the extraordinary form of the 

 parasite, its remarkable life-history, and the curious effects produced 

 on its host by its attacks. In 1890, 1 was able to collect a considerable 

 number of stylopized Andrencd and Halicti, and hoped to be equally 

 successful this season, but as these hopes were not fulfilled, chiefly 

 owing to the wet weather, I have put together the results of my obser- 

 vations made last year. Shuckard, in his " British Bees," tells us that 

 i the larva of Sti/Iops, feeding within the body of its host, lives on its 

 ^ viscera, and renders the bee abortive by destroying the ovaries, since it 

 ■^s chiefly found to attack the female bees. I do not know whence 

 S Shuckard derived this information ; I have never found the female 

 ^^ more liable to attack than the male, nor does the first part of his 

 ^^atement agree with my observations on such British species as I 

 have examined. 



The species used by me were mostly Andrena nana, Kir., and 

 ^ Andrena Wilkella, Kir. Unfortunately, in one way, most of my 

 w) stylopized specimens were males, as other observers have chiefly ex- 

 amined the other sex. On removing the integument dorsally from the 

 bee, the large body of the female parasite will be seen lying above the 



A 



UAKY, 181)2. 



