The Bumble-Bee Fly 



nel-house below, but still pretty frequent. Now 

 what do they do in this abode where there 

 are no corpses? Do they attack the healthy? 

 Their continual visits from cell to cell would 

 at first make one think so ; but we shall soon be 

 undeceived if we observe their movements 

 closely; and this is possible with my glass- 

 roofed colonies. 



I see them fussily crawling on the surface 

 of the combs, curving their necks from side to 

 side and taking stock of the cells. This one 

 does not suit, nor that one either; the bristly 

 creature passes on, still in search, thrusting its 

 pointed fore-part now here, now there. This 

 time, the cell appears to fulfil the requisite 

 conditions. A larva, glowing with health, 

 opens wide its mouth, believing its nurse to be 

 approaching. It fills the hexagonal chamber 

 with its bulging sides. 



The gluttonous visitor bends and slides its 

 slender fore-part, a blade of exquisite supple- 

 ness, between the wall and the inhabitant, 

 whose slack rotundity yields to the pressure 

 of this animated wedge. It plunges into the 

 cell, leaving no part of itself outside but its 

 wide hind-quarters, with the red dots of the 

 two breathing-tubes. 



It remains in this posture for some time, 



267 



