The Primary Larva of the Oil-Beetles 



some Meloe-larvae on the body of a big 

 Beetle, the Golden Rose-chafer {Cetonia 

 aurata) , an assiduous visitor of the flowers. 



After exhausting the insect class, I put 

 within their reach my last resource, a large 

 black Spider. Without hesitation they 

 passed from the flower to the arachnid, 

 made for places near the joints of the legs 

 and settled there without moving. Every- 

 thing therefore seems to suit their plans for 

 leaving the provisional abode where they are 

 waiting; without distinction of species, genus, 

 or class, they fasten to the first living crea- 

 ture that chance brings within their reach. 

 We now understand how it is that these young 

 larvae have been observed upon a host of 

 different insects and especially upon the early 

 Flies and Bees pillaging the flowers; we can 

 also understand the need for that prodigious 

 number of eggs laid by a single Oil-beetle, 

 since the vast majority of the larvae which 

 come out of them will infallibly go astray 

 and will not succeed in reaching the cells of 

 the Anthophorae. Instinct is at fault here; 

 and fecundity makes up for it. 



But instinct recovers its infallibility in an- 

 other case. The Meloes, as we have seen, 

 pass without difficulty from the flower to the 

 objects within their reach, whatever these 



lOI 



