A REMARKABLE HISTORY 85 



their work of storing honey and of preparing for the 

 development of the next season's brood. To one of 

 the mother-bees the young Sitaris beetle now transfers 

 its attentions. It is watching for one event in bee 

 history namely, the laying of the egg. When M. 

 Fabre, puzzled at first to understand the behaviour of 

 the young beetle, and supposing that all that it needed 

 or demanded was food in the shape of the young bee 

 or the honey, examined the nursery-cells of the bees, 

 he found no indication of any attack from the beetle. 

 When he offered the young beetle the larvas and 

 chrysalides, the cells and the honey for food, it refused 

 all. " Que voulez-vous done, bestioles maudites ? " 

 remarked M. Fabre to the waiting beetles. Then came 

 the revelation. The beetle was patiently watching, 

 as we have seen, for the laying of the bee's eggs. 

 When this process has taken place, the Sitaris springs 

 upon it. 



The bee-mother, poor insect, fastens up her cell, 

 with its egg and its honey, under the idea that all is 

 well with her progeny. But she does not enjoy even 

 the small satisfaction of locking the stable-door after 

 the steed has been stolen, for she actually makes the 

 thief and the robber secure and comfortable beside her 

 innocent offspring. The young beetle sits on the egg 

 floating amid the honey as upon a raft. It is, however, 

 a raft which is destined to serve as food for its bearer. 

 The beetle begins to devour the egg. The honey- 

 store is, doubtless, food, and good food to boot ; but 

 what is enough for one is not sufficient for two : so 

 the Sitaris devours the rightful heir to the honey- 

 store, and in about eight days' time the bee's egg 

 has vanished. On the empty shell of the egg, as if 

 itself representing a kind of hollow mockery, sits the 



