** Pediculus Melittce " of Kirhy. Ill 



coincides with the comparative rarity of the hlach in- 

 dividuals ; while it is a well-known fact that the larvaa 

 of Meloe are most abundant in spots where the eggs 

 have been deposited, a single stem being sometimes 

 densely covered with them ; and Newport who, as well 

 as Groedart, counted their eggs, compute them alike at 

 upwards of four thousand in the ovaries of a single 

 female (Trans. Linn. Soc, loc. cit., pp. 302 — 304). 



In alluding however to Smith's recital aforesaid, New- 

 port considers that he found the black individuals thus 

 numerous. He says: — " Mr. F. Smith, to whom I have 

 referred in my former paper, has, as I have there stated 

 (p. 310), taken similar black larvae in great profusion on 

 the AndrenidcB, especially on Andrcna fuscata, captured 

 in the spring on Hampstead Heath, where different 

 species of the adult Meloes are often abundant. In 

 April, 1841, he found similar black larvae in such pro- 

 fusion within the flowers of the buttercup (Ranunculus 

 acris, L.) in a damp field at Bishop's Wood, Hampstead, 

 that he might have collected thousands of them, there 

 being often as many as twenty in the corolla of a single 

 flower. But he never found a yellow-coloured specimen 

 on any of the AndrenidcB.''' In the former paper to 

 which he adverts Newport also alleges that " all the 

 specimens he (Mr. Smith) has found on the Andrenidce 

 have been black, like Mr. Kirby's species, and he has not 

 met with a single yellow one on any species of that 

 family. On the contrary, all the specimens he has 

 found on the Nomadm and Volucellce have been yellow, 

 like the larvae of Meloe!''' Smith, however, distinctly 

 refutes this curious assumption on another occasion, 

 when, speaking of the "small orange-coloured Pediculus " 

 which he had several times reared from the eggs of 

 Meloe, he observes, with reference to Newport's memoir 

 aforesaid : — " In this paper it is shown that the larva of 

 the beetle feeds on that of AnthopJiora acervorum; but 

 it remains to be proved that the larva of an Andrena 

 can serve as food of Meloe. I am inclined to think this 

 can never be the case ; and that the fact of our finding 

 them on these bees is a mere indication of the usual 

 habit of the larvae of attaching themselves to any insect 

 that comes in their way ; for we as constanly find them 

 on Diptera and flower-visiting Coleoptera, as upon the 

 Andrenidce" (Cat. Brit. Hym. in the Brit. Mus., Andre- 

 nidae and Apidae, 1855, p. 48). The same remarks are 



