104 Dr. H. Scott's Noleft on hioloqy of some inqvilincs and 



Java a species, A. ludehingi, 5 males and a larva of which 

 were found in the nest of a bee determined as Bomhus 

 eximms Y. Smith. There is reason to believe that the 

 flower-haunting adults are transported to the nests by 

 clinging to humble-bees. Ferris (19, ]). 75) recorded the 

 capture, in the Pyrenees, of an example of A. nigricornis 

 clinging to the antenna of a Bombus moniamis; and 

 more recently Trautmann has published (21) a note (whicli 

 I have been unable to see) on " an extremely rare find : 

 Antherophagxs nigricornis Fabr. on a living iiumble-bee," 



I did not obtain from observation any information as 

 to the exact part played by Antherophagus in the economy 

 of the nest. Ferris (19, p. 76) considered that the larvae 

 are scavengers, playing the same role in nests of Bomhiis 

 that those of Crgplophagus spp. play in wasps' nests. 

 Cottam (7) records three cases of the finding of A. pollens 

 in nests of Bomlnis muscormn in Derbyshire, Cheshire, aid 

 Lancashire respectively; in one of these nests larvae as 

 well as fvdults were discovered, and it is noted that the 

 larvae were in old, empty, cells of the comb. Two of 

 these finds were made in the month of August ; the third, 

 in which only adult beetles were discovered, was in May. 



Deseriptions of larvae of Antherophagus. — No description 

 is given here of the larva of A. pallens, of which I was 

 only able to preserve one example. The larva has been 

 described and figured by Gernet (13, p. 7), who found 

 larvae of this species in the mitldle of August 1860, in 

 numbers in cells of Bombus museorum, ; but with them no 

 pupae and only one adult. Ferris (19) describes the larva 

 of A. silaceus Herbst; he found adults of that species, 

 and larvae which he referred to it without hesitatioii, 

 in a nest of Botnbus sylvarum, 23, viii, 1875. The larva of 

 the Javanese A. Itidekingi is described by Grouvelle (14). 



Annual cycle of Antherophagrfs. — Summarising all these 

 records, it is seen that adults have been taken in a bees' 

 nest in May, and that adults and larvae have been found 

 in a number of nests in August. In none of these cases 

 have pupae been found ; probably pupation occurs in the 

 soil near the nest. The behaviour of my insects, which 

 wintered as resting larvae and underwent a brief pupal 

 stage in early summer, may well indicate the iiormal 

 cycle of the genus in temperate countries. Fresumably 

 these beetles are double-brooded, with a short summer 

 generation intervening between the emergence of the adults 



