114 Sir S. S. Saunders on the 



Pedicidus being a larva at all " ; although, as he adds, 

 it is certainly possible that they might have subsisted 

 on a portion of the food laid up by AnthojjJiora ; but here 

 was no change of condition, and how came they into the 

 cell? He is therefore "inclined to think that they, 

 being insects in their perfect condition, came there 

 exactly in the same way as we find Forficidce, having 

 forced an entrance, which he did not observe, and that 

 they were in quest of food, seeking what they might 

 devour." But this opinion is also modified at a later 

 page of the same edition (p. 71), for he there observes: 

 — " That it is the larva of some insect is most probable ; 

 this, in Kirby's words, 'future observation will clear up.' " 



Thus this question still remains in abeyance ; nor 

 does it appear to have occurred to Smith that these 

 insects, structurally corresponding with the larvae of 

 Meloe, must, like them, be frequently transported by 

 their Pegasi into cells where they are not likely to find 

 available resources for their future development ; al- 

 though, as he admits {loc. cit., p. 71), "we know now 

 that the larvae of Meloe only increase in size after they 

 have changed to the apod condition "; for, as Fabre has 

 shown, in his interesting Memoire on the habits of 

 Sitaris and Meloe (Ann. Sc. Nat., 4e Ser., Zool., Tome 

 vii., 1857), it is essential to these larvae not only that 

 they should be conveyed to a suitable abode, but also 

 that they should find the undeveloped egg of the bee 

 disposable in the first instance, in order to undergo their 

 primary metamorphosis and assume such apod condition, 

 after which they would be enabled to plunge into and 

 feed upon the honey-store provided by their victim for its 

 own progeny. Failing successful issues in both in- 

 stances these larvffi must incur the risk of being shut up 

 in a closed cell until the following year, together with 

 the young bee of the succeeding brood unmolested in its 

 development, as Smith found them. 



Their means of sustenance during this prolonged in- 

 terval does not appear to offer any insuperable difficulty. 

 Smith himself, as already mentioned, admits " that they 

 might^have subsisted on a portion of the food laid up by 

 Anthophora " ; and Newport adverts to a circumstance 

 which strengthens this probability ; for, having placed 

 a few of the larvae in the cells of a piece of old honey- 

 comb, he "found that, contrary to their usual habit of 

 wandering, they remained perfectly quiet at the bottom 



