108 Sir S. S. Saunders on the 



jjroscarabceus, strange as it may seem, is no other than 

 this insect"; but its subsequent life-history being at 

 that time unknown, he could not "help suspecting that 

 there is some illusion in the case." 



In 1817 Baron C. A. Walckenaer, in his * Memoires 

 pour servir a I'histoire naturelle des Abeilles solitaires 

 qui composent le genre Halictus,' adverts to the Pedi- 

 culus Melittce as having been thus reared from the eggs 

 of Meloe (pp. 86, 87) ; and describes under this name a 

 yelloiv specimen which he had found on Halictus quadri- 

 strigatus, Latr. (ecaphosus, Walck.), giving Kirby's de- 

 scription of the black Pediculus as a "variety" of the 

 former. He misquotes Kirby's reference to DeGeer as 

 indicating that the P. Melittce was the larva of Meloe, 

 adding that his own insect aforesaid was in all essential 

 characters exactly similar to Kirby's specimen ; " ils 

 different seulement entre eux par la couleur, qui est 

 noire dans le P. Melittce (of Kirby), et fauve-claire dans 

 I'individu que j'ai decrit ; et par les soies qui terminent 

 I'abdomen ; dans le P. Hcdicti ce sont les superieures 

 qui sont les plus longues ; dans le P. Melittcs de M. 

 Kirby ce sont les inferieures " ; but he proceeds to ex- 

 plain that this difference in the relative length of the 

 caudal setse might be attributable to misplacement in 

 the setting of his specimen — " de la maniere dont ces 

 soies etaient dirigees lorsqu'on les dessina." Thus he 

 placed no reliance upon the accuracy of his description 

 "anus setis quatuor instructus exteriorihus longiorihus,'^ as 

 represented in his figure. He considers these two 

 insects as varieties of the same species, observing that 

 " tres certainement les observations faites sur Fun 

 seront vraies pour I'autre ; et ils sont tous deux egale- 

 ment des insectes apteres et complets ou des larves du 

 Proscarabee " (p. 84). 



In a memoir by Professor Westwood, which appeared 

 in the second volume of our ' Transactions ' (1836) re- 

 specting " the larva of the Stylopidce and the animal 

 produced from the eggs of Meloe," at a time when the 

 hexapod larvae of the former were regarded as parasites 

 upon the adult apod larviform female, it is observed that 

 these supposed parasites " reminded him most strongly 

 of the parasite of the bee, which Mr. Kirby has de- 

 scribed under the name of Pediculus melittce, and Dufour 

 under that of Triungulinus andrenetarum ; and that 

 no one, it is admitted, has ever seen the larva of 



