Cerocomae, Mylabres and Zonites 



fore does not imitate those of the Sitaris and 

 the Oil-beetle ; it does not settle in the fleece 

 of its host to get itself carried to the cell 

 crammed with victuals. The task of seek- 

 ing and finding the heap of food falls upon 

 its own shoulders. The small number of the 

 eggs that constitute a batch also leads to the 

 same conclusion. Remember that the pri- 

 mary larva of the Oil-beetle, for instance, set- 

 tles on any insect that happens to pay a mo- 

 mentary visit to the flower in which the tiny 

 creature is on the look-out. Whether this 

 visitor be hairy or smooth-skinned, a manu- 

 facturer of honey, a canner of animal flesh or 

 without any determined calling, whether she 

 be Spider, Butterfly, Fly or Beetle makes no 

 difference: the instant the little yellow louse 

 espies the new arrival, it perches on her back 

 and leaves with her. And now it all de- 

 pends on luck! How many of these stray 

 travellers must be lost; how many will never 

 be carried into a warehouse full of honey, 

 their sole food! Therefore, to remedy this 

 enormous waste, the mother produces an in- 

 numerable family. The Oil-beetle's batch of 

 eggs is prodigious. Prodigious too is that 

 of the Sitaris, who is exposed to similar mis- 

 adventures. 



If, with her thirty or forty eggs, the Myla- 

 177 



