46 SANTAREM. Chap. I. 



not work or store up food for their progeny, but deposit 

 their ova in the cells of their comrades. Some of these, 

 it is well known, counterfeit the dress and general 

 figure of their victims. To all appearance this simi- 

 larity of shape and colours between the parasite and its 

 victim is given for the purpose of deceiving the poor 

 hard-working bee, which would otherwise revenge itself 

 by slaying its plunderers. Some parasitic bees, however, 

 have no resemblance to the species they impose upon; 

 probably they live together on more friendly terms, or 

 have some other means of disarming suspicion. Many 

 Dij)terous insects are also parasitic on bees, and wear 

 the same dress as the species they live upon. That the 

 dress of the victimisers is arranged with especial refer- 

 ence to their prey, I think is proved by what I observed 

 at Santarem. The genera of the parasites here are not 

 the same as in Europe ; and when they counterfeit 

 working bees, it is the peculiarly-coloured species of 

 their own country that are imitated, and not those of 

 any other region. The European genus Apathus, which 

 mimics European Humble-bees, is not found in South 

 America ; but the common Bombus of Santarem, which 

 is remarkable in being wholly of a sooty-black colour, is 

 attended by a sooty black parasite of a widely-different 

 genus, the Eurytis funereus. Many of the little MeliponaB 

 have their counterfeits in small Diptera of the family 

 Syrphidse ; and the brilliant green or blue bees of the 

 country (Euglossa) have their imitators in parasitic bees 

 of equally bright colours, belonging to genera unknown 

 out of the countries where the Euglossse are found.* 



* These are Melissa, Mesocheira, Thalestria, &c. 



