506 THE IN 7 SECT WORLD. 



much magnified, lately born, and climbing upon the hair of one of the 

 Hymenoptera, and on the left hand there is a perfect female insect, 

 very much magnified, with ovo- viviparous larvae within its abdomen, 

 and between the two figures there is a representation of a larva of 

 the natural size. It is evident, however, that ova may be expelled 

 from the mother before they are hatched. 



Packard describes the curious history of the female Stylops, Avhich 

 he found parasitic on one of the bees. He caught the bee, and on 

 examining it he noticed a pale reddish-brown triangular mark on the 

 abdomen, and this was the flattened head and thorax of a female 

 Stylops. The creature is included in the body of the bee, and is 

 nourished by its juices. The head and thorax of the parasite were 

 noticed to be soldered into a single flattened mass, the baggy hind 

 body being greatly enlarged, like that of the female white ant. On 

 carefully drawing out the whole body from the bee the mass was 

 found to be very extensible, soft, and baggy, and on examining it under 

 a high power of the microscope, multitudes of very minute larvae 

 were observed, and they began to issue out from the body of the 

 parent all alive, and not as eggs. The male of this Stylops childreni 

 is totally unlike its partner, having large hind wings, and being able 

 to fly, as has already been noticed. It appears, then, that the larvae 

 are hatched or crawl out of the body of the mother on to the body 

 of the bee, and are then transported to its nest ; then they enter 

 the body of the bee larva, and live upon its fatty matter. The male 

 Stylops is turned into a pupa within the bee, and so is the female ; 

 but after the second metamorphosis the male flies off, leaving his 

 wingless partner imprisoned for life, and she usually dies immediately 

 after giving birth to her myriad offspring (Packard). The female 

 respires by peculiarly arranged tracheae, and absorbs nourishment 

 through her skin as well as by means of an alimentary canal, which 

 ends in a blind sac. All the beauties of the female, so far as they 

 are visible to the male, consist in the tiny patch which appears just 

 without the body of the unfortunate bee, and the ova collect in a space 

 which opens between the united head and body and the abdomen. 



The genus Mylabris corresponds most in structure, in appearance, 

 and in properties, to Cantharis, whose place they take in the East, 

 in China, and in the south of Europe. They are found in clusters on 

 the flowers of chicory, thistles, &c. The Mylabris chicorii, common 

 enough in France, especially in the south, is of small size, whilst the 

 other species are rather large. It is black, hairy, with a large 

 yellowish spot at the base of each elytron, and two transverse bands 

 of the same colour. 



