The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



wandering on the ground, where the Antho- 

 phorae very rarely alight; and yet I detected 

 the presence of several Meloe-larvae in the 

 thoracic down of nearly all the Anthophorae 

 which I caught and examined. 



I have also found them on the bodies of 

 the Melecta- and Coelioxys-bees, 1 who are 

 parasitic on the Anthophorae. Suspending 

 their audacious . patrolling before the gal- 

 leries under construction, these spoilers of 

 the victualled cells alight for an instant on 

 a camomile-flower and lo, the thief is 

 robbed! A tiny, imperceptible louse has 

 slipped into the thick of the downy fur and, 

 at the moment when the parasite, after de- 

 stroying the Anthophora's egg, is laying her 

 own upon the stolen honey, will creep upon 

 this egg, destroy it in its turn and remain 

 sole mistress of the provisions. The mess 

 of honey amassed by the Anthophora will 

 thus pass through the hands of three owners 

 and remain finally the property of the weak- 

 est of the three. 



And who shall say whether the Meloe, in 

 its turn, will not be dispossessed by a fresh 

 thief; or even whether it will not, in the state 

 of a drowsy, fat and flabby larva, fall a 



1 Cf. The Mason-bees: chaps, viii. and ix. Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



94 



