The Primary Larva of the Sitares 



the silky tangle of the Bee's thorax, all 

 eagerly watching for the propitious moment 

 at which to enter the dwelling in which they 

 are to continue their development. How 

 then does it happen that these larvae, goaded 

 by such an appetite as one would expect after 

 seven or eight months' complete abstinence, 

 instead of all rushing together into the first 

 cell within reach, on the contrary enter the 

 various cells which the Bee is provisioning 

 one at a time and in perfect order? Some 

 action must take place here independent of 

 the Sitares. 



To satisfy those two indispensable condi- 

 tions, the arrival of the larva upon the egg 

 without crossing the honey and the introduc- 

 tion of a single larva among all those waiting 

 in the fleece of the Bee, there can be only 

 one explanation, which is to suppose that, at 

 the moment when the Anthophora's egg is 

 half out of the oviduct, one of the Sitares 

 which have hastened from the thorax to the 

 tip of the abdomen, one more highly fa- 

 voured by its position, instantly settles upon 

 the egg, a bridge too narrow for two, and 

 with it reaches the surface of the honey. 

 The impossibility of otherwise fulfilling the 

 two conditions which I have stated gives to 

 the explanation which I am offering a degree 

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