The Primary Larva of the Oil-Beetles 



prey to some marauder who will munch its 

 live entrails? As we meditate upon this 

 deadly, implacable struggle which nature im- 

 poses, for their preservation, on these differ- 

 ent creatures, which are by turns possessors 

 and dispossessed, devourers and devoured, a 

 painful impression mingles with the wonder 

 aroused by the means employed by each 

 parasite to attain its end ; and, forgetting for 

 a moment the tiny world in which these things 

 happen, we are seized with terror at this 

 concatenation of larceny, cunning and bri- 

 gandage which forms part, alas, of the de- 

 signs of alma parens rerum! 



The young Meloe-larvae established in the 

 down of the Anthophorae or in that of the 

 Melecta- and the Coelioxys-bees, their para- 

 sites, had adopted an infallible means of 

 sooner or later reaching the desired cell. 

 Was it, so far as they were concerned, a 

 choice dictated by the foresight of instinct, 

 or just simply the result of a lucky chance? 

 The question was soon decided. Various 

 Flies — Drone-flies and Bluebottles (Eris- 

 talis tenax and Calliphora vomit oria) — 

 would settle from time to time on the ground- 

 sel- or camomile-flowers occupied by the 

 young Meloes and stop for a moment to suck 

 the sweet secretions. On all these Flies, 

 95 



