14 Transactions of the 



bees ; it is its larva which works the mischief, fastening 

 itself on the grub of the bee and sucking out its juices. To 

 effect this object, the female Volucella on discovering a bee's 

 nest, walks boldly down the passage leading to it, and there 

 deposits an egg on the skin of the baby bee, whose doom 

 from that moment is sealed. 



Will it be believed that our tiny oil beetle, as if aware of 

 this peculiar habit of the Volucella, attaches itself to it in 

 order to be carried to a bee's nest ? Yet such is, in fact, the 

 case. Flies, as we all know, surround the flowers in early 

 summer (when these circumstances occur) in myriads. How 

 shall our inexperienced bantling distinguish one species of 

 fly from another ? We cannot tell. We can only fall back 

 once more upon instinct, not to solve the mystery, but only 

 to express our ignorance in a form less displeasing to our 

 vanity ! However, be the solution what it may, the fact 

 remains that the larva of Proscarahceiis attaches itself to an 

 insect with which it has nothing whatever in common, 

 except the one circumstance, that both are desirous to find 

 their way into the cell of an earth-burrowing bee ! Having by 

 these various means landed our young friend in its temporary 

 home, but little more remains to be said. Snugly ensconced 

 in a cell, it first devours the helpless bee grub, and then (in 

 a later stage) eats up the prepared pollen or bee bread in- 

 tended for the rightful occupant of the cradle. Thus it 

 passes through four transformations, unmolested by the 

 inmates of the nest, and in the following spring issues forth 

 a perfect beetle, prepared once more to play its part in the 

 great drama of Nature. I think you wiU agree with me, that 

 we have here as strange a chapter in the Life History of 

 Insect Parasites as the imagination can well conceive, and 

 one which shows in a very extraordinary manner the abun- 

 dant care which the Almighty takes of the meanest of His 

 creatures. 



Note. — One or two other meetings were Iield during the latter part of 1869, but 

 the minutes, unfortunately, have not been preserved. One of the papers then read 

 was by J. E, Pearson, ou^the ' Atlantic Telegraph.' 



