102 ROUND THE YEAR 



is very rare. After six hours of digging i secured 

 many cells enclosing Sitaris, and two with Meloe. 

 On the dark and liquid honey was a wrinkled mem- 

 brane, and upon this a yellow larva. The membrane 

 was the empty envelope of an Anthophora egg ; the 

 larva was the larva of Meloe. 



" The Meloe larva quits the hairs of the Bee just 

 when she lays her egg. Since contact with honey 

 would be fatal, the tactics of the Sitaris are pursued, 

 and the larva drops upon the egg as it is laid. The 

 next step is to devour the contents of the floating 

 egg, and after this meal, the only one which it takes 

 in its active stage, it undergoes a kind of transforma- 

 tion, feeding hereafter upon the honey stored up by 

 the Anthophora. Hence the obstacle which rendered 

 fruitless my own previous attempts as well as those of 

 Newport. It is useless to offer to Meloe larvae honey, 

 larvae of Anthophora, or pupae ; they must attain the 

 freshly deposited egg." 



Fabre has described in detail the subsequent trans- 

 formations of the Sitaris larva, of which the English 

 reader will find an interesting account with illustra- 

 tive figures, in Lubbock's Origin and Metamorphoses 

 of Insects (Chap. II.). The history of Meloe is very 

 similar. The active larva changes to a soft grub, 

 which feeds exclusively on honey. A third larval 

 form, not unlike a Lamellicorn larva, succeeds. About 

 Midsummer this is transformed into what Fabre calls 

 the pseudo-chrysalis. The Meloe in this stage, still 

 encumbered by the cast skin of the third larva, had 

 been observed by Newport, who remarks that the 

 stout mandibles and hooked feet of the third larva 



