162 Journal of Entomology and Zoology 
ation in each cell, went plowing through the whole row, and when 
the timber was opened the next morning No. 1 was found in cell 
No. 6 ready to tear away the last restraining wall. In some cases 
the first to emerge did wait for a short time before beginning to dig 
out, but this was not the rule. I think this matter is probably gov- 
erned by the food supply. If these was a fragment left from the 
larval feeding it will satisfy the newly-emerged one for some time, 
but if not, it soon seeks a way out. These creatures seem to be 
ravenously hungry upon their emergence (as might be expected 
after sixty days of organization and development without taking 
any food) and their first activity is a search for food. After search- 
ing through their own tunnel and devouring what fragments remain 
they do not fly at once but enter adjoining burrows and profit by 
any morsel which may have been left by the early death of a neigh- 
boring larva or the failure of an egg to hatch. 
The question has been raised as to a uniform position of the 
males and females in the brood tunnel (Davidson, Ent. News, Vol. 
4, 1892). TI noted at least one exception to such a rule, the first 
of one brood being a male and the first of another brood being a 
female. 
Parasites: The most interesting of the parasites found upon this 
species was one of the Bombyliide, Spongostylum delila Loew, which 
first appears upon the foodmass as a very minute but exceedingly 
active larva. Even before the egg of the host is hatched this almost 
microscopic intruder is found industriously creeping about, rearing 
and stretching as if looking for a foe to conquor. For three weeks 
or more it thus restlessly creeps about over foodmass, egg and 
larva, feeding promiscuously, then finally settles down and, fastening 
itself by means of its hooked beak to the sixth or seventh segment 
of the Xylocopa larva (Fig. 12), it quietly feeds until its host is 
devoured unless shaken loose by the writhing movements (noted 
above) of the larva, when it soon reattaches itself and resumes its 
quiet feeding. The parasite is four weeks, or more old when it thus 
attaches itself and is found to be only three to five mm. in length. 
For nearly two weeks more its growth can scarcely be noted except 
by careful measurements so that at the age of five and one-half to 
six weeks its length is but from four to five mm. Here a remarkable 
