84 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



the bee. The latter has filled its stone cell with honey, 

 (on the surface of which floats its egg), the entrance to 

 the nursery-chamber being thereafter duly plastered 

 up. At the entrance of the bee's gallery the beetle 

 lays its egg, and thus inaugurates a very singular 

 course of events. The Sitaris egg is hatched out 

 about the end of August or beginning of October, and 

 the young beetle, an active grub with six legs of its 

 own, appears on the scene. 



Expectation might be aroused that, with a store of 

 honey close by, the young beetle might begin its opera- 

 tions by an attack on the sealed nursery-chamber of 

 the bee. But this expectation would be doomed to 

 disappointment. All through the winter the young 

 beetle lies, like Lazarus at the gate of Dives, uncom- 

 plaining and apparently forlorn. When, however, 

 April comes, the youthful beetle awakens to activity : 

 it searches about as if looking for food and lodgment, 

 but nothing definite at first comes of its movements. 

 The bees, meanwhile, have been also hatching out, the 

 first cf this race to appear being male insects. 



But, as if they had been prematurely born, these 

 bees lie listless and cold at the mouths of their galleries, 

 and therefore in close proximity to the young beetles, 

 in whom they seem to have thus discovered comrades 

 in adversity. The time and opportunity of the young 

 Sitaris have now arrived. For it fastens upon the 

 young bee, and is aided in its attachment by the claws 

 with which its feet are provided. The beetle is, how- 

 ever, playing a waiting game : it is only using the 

 young male bee as a stepping-stone to a more suitable 

 position. The female bees next hatch out, and with 

 their advent a new epoch begins for the beetle. 



The female bees emerge from the nest and commence 



