The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



cause a little of the juices, which become daily 

 less abundant, to trickle from it; but we 

 never catch it imbibing the honey which sur- 

 rounds it on every side. 



For that matter, it is easy to convince 

 ourselves that the egg combines with the 

 function of a life-buoy that of the first ration, 

 I have laid on the surface of the honey in a 

 cell a tiny strip of paper, of the same dimen- 

 sions as the egg; and on this raft I have 

 placed a Sitaris-larva. Despite every care, 

 my attempts, many times repeated, always 

 failed. The larva, placed in a paper boat 

 in the centre of the mass of honey, behaves 

 as in the earlier experiments. Not finding 

 what suits it, it tries to escape and perishes 

 in the sticky toils as soon as it leaves the 

 strip of paper, which it soon does. 



On the other hand, we can easily rear 

 Sitaris-grubs by taking Anthophora-cells not 

 invaded by the parasites, cells in which the 

 egg is not yet hatched. All that we have 

 to do is to pick up one of these grubs with 

 the moistened tip of a needle and to lay it 

 delicately on the egg. There is then no 

 longer the least attempt to escape. After 

 exploring the egg to find its way about, the 

 larva rips it open and for several days does 

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