A DREADFUL PARASITE 



OF all the evils to which bee flesh is heir, there 

 can hardly be any so terrible as the effects of 

 the parasite Stylops on the species of Andrena 

 and Halictus which it attacks. This very extra- 

 ordinary creature, which is now considered to 

 be a beetle, lives during the early stages of 

 both sexes in the body of the bee, which it 

 enters when the bee is in the larval state. 

 Its head protrudes like a minute flat seed 



FIG. 21. 



between the body segments (fig. 21), and so is 

 visible externally, but the rest of the creature, 

 which is a grub -like larva, rests amongst the 

 intestines of the bee ; the female matures in 

 the bee's body and never leaves it. The male, 

 however, when mature, escapes, leaving the 



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