BEES HUMBLE AND OTHERWISE 67 



for an opportunity to lay its egg in the pollen mass 

 that Anthophora has accumulated for her own 

 progeny. Once that is done, of course, the parasite 

 wins, at any rate, from the Anthophora grub, 

 for it hatches earlier and shoulders the other off 

 in true cuckoo fashion. Yet wait. The cuckoo 

 mother may have unwittingly carried into the 

 nest another parasite on her back, and that may 

 win the race both over the host grub and the 

 cuckoo grub. 



These entomological studies are apt to lead us 

 far astray from any mere tribe with which we 

 start. The parasite that enters on the back of 

 the parasitic Melecta springs from the egg of a 

 beetle, the ponderous oil beetle often met with 

 upon the road by a good hedgerow in early spring. 

 The oil beetle lays its egg in a likely flower, and 

 the egg hatches into a leggy and active grub, which 

 seizes the first opportunity offered to jump on to 

 the first bee that visits the flower and to hang on to 

 her hairs and not to leave till she comes to her 

 own nest. Then the oil beetle larva buries itself 

 in the larder, shortly abandons its legginess and 

 lives the next stage of its life as a fat and rolling 

 maggot. 



It may seem natural that a slovenly parasite 

 bee may be more prone to victimization by a sub- 

 parasite than the industrious Mrs. Hairy-legs 

 herself, and Melecta gets the credit for bringing 

 in the oil beetle in most cases where it is found in 

 sole occupation of Anthophora's nest. At any rate, 



