The Halicti : a Parasite 



another takes up and examines; and then an- 

 other and another yet. The returns are heart- 

 rending. We do not succeed in finding one 

 single nymph of the Halictus. The whole 

 of the populous city has perished ; and its place 

 has been taken by the Gnat. There is a glut 

 of that individual's pupae. I collect them in 

 order to trace their evolution. 



The year runs its course; and the little rus- 

 set kegs, into which the original maggots have 

 hardened and contracted, remain stationary. 

 They are seeds endowed with latent life. The 

 heats of July do not rouse them from their 

 torpor. In that month, the period of the sec- 

 ond generation of the Halictus, there is a sort 

 of truce of God : the parasite rests and the Bee 

 works in peace. If hostilities were to be re- 

 sumed straight away, as murderous in sum- 

 mer as they were in spring, the progeny of the 

 Halictus, too cruelly smitten, might possibly 

 disappear altogether. This lull readjusts the 

 balance. 



In April, when the Zebra Halictus, In 

 search of a good place for her burrows, roams 

 up and down the garden paths with her oscil- 

 lating flight, the parasite, on its side, hastens 

 to hatch. Oh, the precise and terrible agrce- 



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