The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



death, if it happened by accident to touch 

 the perilous surface merely with the tip of 

 its tarsi. 



Since we cannot admit that the Sitaris-grub 

 leaves the furry corselet of its hostess to slip 

 unseen into the cell, whose orifice is not yet 

 wholly walled up, at the moment when the 

 Anthophora is building her door, all that 

 remains to investigate is the second at which 

 the egg is being laid. Remember in the first 

 place that the young Sitaris which we find in 

 a closed cell is always placed on the egg of 

 the Bee. We shall see in a minute that this 

 egg not merely serves as a raft for the tiny 

 creature floating on a very treacherous lake, 

 but also constitutes the first and indispensable 

 part of its diet. To get at this egg, situated 

 in the centre of the lake of honey, to reach, 

 at all costs, this raft, which is also its first 

 ration, the young larva evidently possesses 

 some means of avoiding the fatal contact of 

 the honey; and this means can be provided 

 only by the actions of the Bee herself. 



In the second place, observations repeated 

 ad nauseam have shown me that at no pe- 

 riod do we find in each invaded cell more 

 than a single Sitaris, in one or other of the 

 forms which it successively assumes. Yet 

 there are several young larvae established in 

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