THE OIL-BEETLE (MELOE) 101 



articulation of the legs, and remained there motionless. 

 Anything, it appears, suffices to tempt them from 

 their temporary retreat ; they attach themselves to 

 the first living thing which comes in their way. Hence 

 the necessity of a vast number of eggs ; the great 

 majority of the larvae go astray, and never gain the 

 cells of the Anthophora. Fertility supplies the defects 

 of instinct. 



" How does the Meloe larva quit the Bee, which 

 has guided it to the cell ? With larvae found upon 

 various Hymenoptera I made some trials, such as 

 Newport had previously made. Meloe larvae when 

 brought near to the larvae and pupae of Anthophora, 

 paid no attention to them ; others placed close to 

 cells filled with honey, did not enter them and at 

 most touched the edge ; while such as were placed 

 inside the cells, came out immediately or perished by 

 suffocation. 



"Dug- out nests of Anthophora had previously in- 

 formed me that Meloe cicatricosus is parasitic upon 

 this Bee, in whose cells I had found the adult Meloe, 

 dead and dry. The yellow larvae, found alive upon 

 Anthophora, had been recognised by Newport as the 

 larvae of Meloe. Bearing in mirid these facts, which 

 impressed me the more as I had recently been investi- 

 gating the similar history of Sitaris, I betook- myself 

 on May 2ist of the following year to Carpentras, and 

 visited the nests which the Anthophora was now 

 engaged in constructing. I felt pretty sure of finding 

 out sooner or later the life-history of Sitaris, which 

 was very plentiful, but was less hopeful about the 

 Meloe, which, though it occurs in the same nests, 



