182 



KNOWLEDGE 



[October 1, 1892. 



Styhjriila;, but they are 



Fig. 9.- 



-Italp Sfi/lojis. 

 Westwood.) 



(After 



all very minute ereiatures, the 

 largest being not more 

 than a quarter of an 

 inch long, while the 

 rest are considerably 

 smaller. The species in 

 question has a jet black 

 body and a pair of large 

 milk-white wings. Its 

 eyes are large and star- 

 ing, appearing almost 

 as if perched on the end 

 of stalks, but the facets 

 of which they are com- 

 posed are very few, not 

 more than about fifteen to each eye ; the antenna, most 

 unusually, are each composed of tica branches side by side. 

 The fore wings are reduced to extremely minute dimensions, 

 and bent as above described ; what their use can be is 

 quite conjectural. The hind wings, on the other hand, are 

 ample, each spreading, when fuUy extended, over about a 

 quadrant of a circle. Connected with this great develop- 

 ment of hind wings is the large size of the hinder portion 

 of the thorax, to which the wings are attached, and which, 

 therefore, lodges the muscles by which they are rapidly 

 vibrated. When not in use, the wings are folded 

 longitudinally and laid along the back. The body is small 

 and weak and, when the insect dies, soon shrivels up. F. 

 Smith says, "The texture of all parts of the body of a male 

 Sti/lops is of so delicate a nature that within two hours after 

 death the entire appearance of the insect is changed, 

 bearing no nearer a resemblance to the living creature 

 than a shrivelled mummy does to the once manly and 

 graceful Egyptian." 



The little creature lives apparently but a few hours, and 

 during that time takes no food, though it has a pair of 

 jaws, being intent upon its sole business, the discovery of 

 a mate. But in the pursuit of this business it manages to 

 squeeze a good deal of activity and movement into its brief 

 existence. As may be imagined, it is a by no means 

 frequent occurrence to see these ephemeral beings on the 

 wing, and only a few such opiportunities have been recorded. 

 Dale describes a Sti/lojis as flying " with an undulating or 

 vacillating motion amongst the young shoots of a quickset 

 hedge," and adds, " I could not catch it until it settled 

 upon one, when it ran up and down, its wings hi motion, 



and making a considerable buzz or hum I 



put it under a glass and placed it in the sun ; it became 

 quite furious in its confinement, and never ceased moving 



about for two hours It buzzed against the 



side of the glass with its head touching it, and tumbling 

 about on its back." Thwaites, again, speaks of them as 

 being " exceedingly graceful in their flight, taking long 

 sweeps as if carried along by a gentle breeze," usually 

 flying so high as to be out of reach, but " occasionally 

 descending and hovering a few inches from the ground. 

 . When captured they are exceedingly active, 

 running up and down the sides of the bottle in which they 

 are confined, moving their wings and antennte very 

 rapidly." 



The search for a partner cannot be a very easy matter, 

 seeing that the destined bride is completely imbedded in 

 the body of a bee, and no part of her is visible outside 

 except the minute knob-like fore-part, and this must be 

 quite unnoticeable while the bee is on the wing. Hence, 

 this matrimonial hunt must be an exciting occupation, 

 especially as the hours pass by, and the sands of the 

 hunter's little life are running rapidly down. No wonder, 

 therefore, that its senses are preternaturally quickened, as 



we conclude to be the case from the fantastically com- 

 plicated antennas and the prominent eyes, so placed as to 

 take m the whole horizon at a sweep. 



The female is shaped something like a phial bottle, the 

 narrow part being connected with the broader by a 

 still narrower constriction. The small anterior part 

 consists of the head and thorax fused into one, and it is a 

 portion of this that projects between the segments of the 

 bee's back. The res; of the creature lies buried in the 

 bee's abdomen in the manner shown in Fig. 10, occupying, 

 sometimes, as much as one- 

 fifth of the whole space. 

 As regards organization, 

 the condition of this 

 curious being might be 

 not inaptly expressed in 

 the words with which 

 Shakespeare closes his Fig. 10.— Outline of female S^//o/w 

 description of the seven in abdomen of Bee. (After 



ages of man : Paskard.) 



" Sans teeth, .*ans eyes, sans taste, sans evpri/thinf/." 

 She has neither legs nor wings, and never leaves the body 

 of her host. Such food as she takes appears to enter her 

 body by absorption from the surrounding tiasues of the bee, 

 and her abdomen becomes simply a chamber for the 

 development of the eggs and the hatching of the young. 

 She produces an immense number of larvfe viviparously, 

 which, as soon as hatched, escape through an aperture in 

 her thorax, which is the natural orifice of the reproductive 

 organs transposed fi-om its usual position to the only spot 

 in which it would be of any use. The hatching of the 

 larviB is followed by the death of their parent. The 

 larv« are extremely minute, being not more than Jjith of an 

 inch in length ; they swarm in hundreds over the body 

 of the bee, clinging to its hairs, and giving it the 

 appearance of being covered with dust. From Fig. 11 it 

 will be seen that the larva in its first condition bears not 

 the slightest resemblance to either 

 of its parents, being an active six- 

 legged creature with long hair-like 

 appendages at the tail, just as is the 

 case with the newly-hatched larva 

 of the oil beetle. It has, however, 

 no claws at the end of its feet. The 

 bee seems to object to the presence 

 of the larvae on its body, and their 

 emission apparently causes it con- 

 sideralile annoyance and irritation, 

 and renders it very excited. A 

 stylopized ieraale oi AikIivtui Trim- 

 mcrana was once kept for some days 

 by F. Smith, enclosed in a gauze- 

 covered box, and continually kept 

 supplied with fresh flowers. One day 

 he noticed the bee " running about 

 apparently in a very excited state, j.,^ ji_LarTaof S/y/oy-.v. 

 burying herself beneath the leaves (After Newport.) 

 and flowers, then issuing forth and 



running round the sides of the box ; sometimes she would 

 stop, bury her head in the petals of a dandelion, and then 

 commence brushing herself with her posterior legs, passing 

 them quickly over the upper surface of the abdomen." 

 Closer examination showed that she was covered with 

 Stylo jis larvas which she was doing her best to get rid of. 

 No doubt large numbers of the larvie perish in this way, 

 being brushed off and falling into situations in which they 

 get no chance of mounting on bee-back again. 



Like the larvie of Meloii, it is now essential that the 

 yoimg Sti/hijis should be conveyed to the cell of a bee, since 



