298 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
Stylops. Perchéron copies Jurine’s figures of the larva and pupa, 
but adds, “Je doute beaucoup de leur exactitude ;” that of the 
pupa is, however, correct, agreeing with that which I have given 
(fig. 93.17.) of the most advanced pupa of Xenos sent me by Van 
Heyden, and in which the resemblance to the imago is at once per- 
ceived, the limbs being seen to be distinctly formed, but enclosed in 
fine sheaths, and laid upon the breast; the wings not extending beyond 
the extremity of the thorax. The abdomen at this time is con- 
siderably swollen. 
Mr. Kirby’s account of the discovery of these insects, and of the 
bursting forth of the imago, is so interesting, that the following ex- 
tract will not be deemed out of place: after mentioning that he had 
repeatedly observed something upon the abdomen of various Andrene, 
which he had at first regarded as a kind of acarus, he at length deter- 
mined to examine and describe one of them: “ But what was my 
astonishment when, upon attempting to disengage it with a pin, I 
drew forth from the body of the bee a white fleshy larva a quarter of 
an inch long, the head of which I had mistaken for an acarus. How 
this animal receives its nourishment seems a mystery. Upon ex- 
amining the head, under a streng magnifier, I could not discover any 
mouth or proboscis with which it might perforate the corneous cover- 
ing of the abdomen, and so support itself by suction: on the under 
side of the head, at its junction with the body, there was a concavity ; 
but I could observe nothing in this but a uniform unbroken surface. 
As the body of the animal is inserted in the body of the bee, does 
that part receive its nutriment from it by absorption? After I 
had examined one specimen, I attempted to extract a second; and 
the reader may imagine how greatly my astonishment was increased 
when, after I had drawn it out but a little way, I saw its skin burst, 
and a head as black as ink, with large staring eyes and antenne, con- 
sisting of two branches, break forth, and move itself briskly from side 
to side. It looked like a little imp of darkness just emerging from the 
infernal regions. I was impatient to become better acquainted with 
so singular a creature. When it was completely disengaged *, and I 
* Latreille imagines that pseudhalteres are serviceable in enabling the Stylops to 
disengage itself from between the scales of the abdomen of the insects within which 
it has lived. ( Régne Ann. tom. v. p. 427.) Mr. Thwaites has observed that the imago 
discharges a thickened dusky-coloured fluid, with which the abdomen had been 
distended shortly after it is disengaged from the body of the bee. 
