The Sitares 



severance has been kept up by the keenest de- 

 sire to cast some light upon all these mys- 

 teries, how is it, I say, that I have never come 

 across a single specimen of the supposed 

 parasites to which the shell might be at- 

 tributed, since this shell appears not to be a 

 Beetle's? The reader would hardly suspect 

 how my slight acquaintance with entomology 

 was unsettled by this inextricable maze of 

 contradictory facts. But patience 1 We may 

 yet obtain some light. 



Let us begin by observing precisely at 

 what spot the eggs are laid. A female has 

 just been fertilized before my eyes; she is 

 forthwith placed in a large glass jar, into 

 which I put, at the same time, some clods of 

 earth containing Anthophora-cells. These 

 cells are occupied partly by larvae and partly 

 by nymphs that are still quite white; some 

 are slightly open and afford a glimpse of 

 their contents. Lastly, in the inner surface 

 of the cork which closes the jar I sink a cylin- 

 drical well, a blind alley, of the same diameter 

 as the corridors of the Anthophora. In or- 

 der that the insect, if it so desire, may enter 

 this artificial corridor, I lay the bottle hori- 

 zontally. 



The female, painfully dragging her big 

 abdomen, perambulates all the nooks and 

 41 



