The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



Searches made at various periods in the 

 nests of the Hairy-footed Anthophora had 

 taught me some years earlier that Meloe 

 cicatricosus, like the Sitares, is a parasite of 

 that Bee; indeed I had at different times dis- 

 covered adult Meloes, dead and shrivelled, 

 in the Bee's cells. On the other hand, I 

 knew from Leon Dufour that the little 

 yellow animal, the Louse found in the 

 Bee's down, had been recognized, thanks to 

 Newport's investigations, as the larva of 

 the Oil-beetle. With these data, rendered 

 still more striking by what I was learning 

 daily on the subject of the Sitares, I went 

 to Carpentras, on the 2ist of May, to 

 inspect the nests of the Anthophorae, then 

 building, as I have described. Though 

 I was almost certain of succeeding, sooner 

 or later, with the Sitares, who were ex- 

 cessively abundant, I had very little hope 

 of the Meloes, which on the contrary are 

 very scarce in the same nests. Circum- 

 stances, however, favoured me more than I 

 dared hope and, after six hours' labour, in 

 which the pick played a great part, I be- 

 came the possessor, by the sweat of my brow, 

 of a considerable number of cells occupied 

 by Sitares and two other cells appropriated 

 by Meloes. 



106 



