EARLY SPRING 



ORANGE TIP 



BUTTKHFLY 



(photographed alive) 



TIIK OIL- 

 BEETLE 



IT may be later March or early April days before 



the trees have unfurled their leaves ; cold east 



winds have forgotten to blow, and there is brilliant 



sun. We have seen the brimstone butterfly 



waked from its long winter's sleep, an orange 



tip scarce hours old floats by, and humble-bees 



in buzzing life are engaged in their wondrous 



pursuit of ' sensing ' a cavity in which to form 



a nest. 



The blundering oil-beetle ( Meloe proscara- 

 bwm) with its marvellous legs scrambles over 

 the undergrowth in the hedgerow. How strange that 

 its errand should result in the weird entanglement 

 which connects its life with that of the humble-bee ! 

 Naturalists tell us how the eggs of the oil-beetle 

 deposited in early flowers hatch out to small, active 

 six-legged creatures which, crawling on to the back 

 of the visiting humble-bee, are carried by it to its 

 home, there to lead a pilfering life by feeding on the 

 bee's own eggs and, later, becoming fat maggots 

 eating up the supplies of honey. 



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