The Primary Larva of the Sitares 



make their way In, leave It and go roaming 

 about the glass tube; those which have been 

 placed on the inner surface of the cells, near 

 the honey, emerge precipitately, half-caught 

 in the glue and tripping at every step; lastly, 

 those which I thought I had favoured the 

 most, by placing them on the honey itself, 

 struggle, become entangled in the sticky mass 

 and perish in it, suffocated. Never did ex- 

 periment break down so completely! Lar- 

 vae, nymphs, cells, honey: I have offered you 

 them all ! Then what do you want, you 

 fiendish little creatures? 



Tired of all these fruitless attempts, I 

 ended where I ought to have begun: I went 

 to Carpentras. But it was too late : the 

 Anthophora had finished her work; and I 

 did not succeed in seeing anything new. 

 During the course of the year I learnt from 

 Leon Dufour,^ to whom I had spoken of the 

 Sitares, that the tiny creature which he had 

 found on the Andrenae ^ and described under 



1 Jean Marie Leon Dufour (1780-1865), an army surg- 

 eon who served with distinction in several campaigns, 

 and subsequently practised as a doctor in the Landes, 

 where he attained great eminence as a naturalist. 

 Fabre often refers to him as the Wizard of the Landes. 

 Cf. The Life of the Spider, by J. Henri Fabre, translated 

 by .Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. i. ; and The Life 

 qf the Fly: chap. i. — Translator's Note. 



2 A genus of Burrowing Bee, the most numerous in 

 species among the British Bees. — Translator's Note. 



55 



