294 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



triungulin larvae slips off her body onto the egg she has 

 just deposited upon the honey. Here the larvae remains, 

 balanced carefully upon the egg, for if it left for the honey, 

 it would be drowned. The bee then seals up the cell, and 

 the larvae proceeds to eat the egg, living upon its con- 

 tents for about eight days. It remains in the shell of the 

 egg during this time for it would be suffocated if it came 

 into contact with the honey. At this period the larva 

 moults and appears in the form specially adapted to float- 

 ing upon the honey, which is to be its food for the next 

 six weeks. The legs of the triungulin stage have disap- 

 peared together with the other appendages and the larva 

 now seems but little more than a vesicle. It is shaped, 

 however, in such a way that one surface must float upper- 

 most in the honey, and round this surface are the open- 

 ings of the spiracles, so that the animal is adapted to 

 breathe while it floats passively upon the surface of the 

 honey, which is its food. When it has finished the honey 

 it is metamorphosed into a pseudopupa. 



Individual Sitaris may vary in their subsequent life 

 history before reaching the stage of the perfect insect, 

 but we will leave these stages and deal with those de- 

 scribed. The main adaptations here are : the numerous 

 eggs laid by the female, which meet the high mortality 

 among the larvae, the three claws upon the leg, which 

 enable the larva to cling to the bee ; its emergence from 

 hibernation at the same time that Anthophora appears ; 

 the instinct to leave the male bee and go to the female 

 and to leave the female and float upon the egg; the 

 equally remarkable instinct through which it rigidly 

 keeps within the egg; the metamorphosis into a shape 

 unknown among other beetles, which is perfectly adapted 

 to a passive existence, floating upon the honey in the cell 

 of the bee." 



