JANUARY 5 



composite flower, such as a meadow marguerite. To 

 do so, they ascend every stem they encounter ; many 

 of these are only grass stems, others bear flowers of the 

 wrong colour, which obliges them to descend and climb 

 another stem. A large percentage of these creatures 

 perish in the quest. A considerable number, however, 

 find a flower of the right kind, ensconce themselves 

 among the anthers, and lie perfectly still, waiting the 

 next momentous event. This will be the visit of a 

 flying insect. No sooner does one alight on the flower 

 than the concealed larva seizes the hairs of its thorax 

 with claws specially contrived for the purpose, and is 

 borne off whither I Ah, that is the strangest thing 

 of all. If it is a fly, a moth, a honey-bee to which it 

 has clung, the larva perishes. It must be a humble-bee 

 of a particular sort (Anthophora), by help of which 

 alone the larva can pass into its next stage. Supposing 

 it to have been lucky enough to have got into the right 

 train (perhaps not more than one in a thousand do so), 

 it has got some delicate work before it still. It must 

 hold on to its host till she flies home in order to deposit 

 an egg in the cell prepared for it. This cell is full of 

 honey, on the surface of which the egg is intended to 

 float. If the young oil-beetle were to fall into the 

 honey, it would assuredly perish ; it must wait till the 

 egg leaves the body of the bee, jump on it at that 

 moment, and sail about on the egg. It then begins its 

 first meal, devours the contents of the egg, and changes 

 into a fat maggot. In that state it acquires, for the 

 first time, a taste for honey; it empties the store 



