The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



affairs has lasted a month or so, there can 

 be only very few if any larvae left wandering 

 about without having attained their end. At 

 that period I was unable to find them any- 

 where save on the body of the male An- 

 thophora. 



It is therefore extremely probable that, on 

 their emergence, which takes place as May 

 draws near, the female Anthophorae do not 

 pick up Sitaris-larvae in the corridors, or 

 pick up only a number which will not compare 

 with that carried by the males. In fact, the 

 first females that I was able to observe in 

 April, in the actual neighbourhood of the 

 nests, were free from these larvae. Never- 

 theless it is upon the females that the Sitaris- 

 larvae must finally establish themselves, for 

 the males upon whom they now are cannot 

 introduce them into the cells, since they take 

 no part in the building or provisioning. 

 There is therefore, at a given moment, a 

 transfer of Sitaris-larvae from the male An- 

 thophorae to the females; and this transfer 

 is, beyond a doubt, effected during the union 

 of the sexes. The female finds in the 

 male's embraces both life and death for her 

 offspring; at the moment when she surrenders 

 herself to the male for the preservation of 

 her race, the vigilant parasites pass from the 

 66 



