INSECTS AS PARASITES 



(^Anthophord] that make underground nests, storing each cell 



with honey, and then laying an egg therein. In early autumn 



the female beetle lays her numerous eggs (as many as 2000) 



near the openings of bees' nests, and these hatch out into minute 



six-legged larvae, which hibernate till the following spring. After 



the winter-sleep is over these little creatures hold on to any hair- 



clad insects that pass sufficiently near, and are thus carried away. 



Only those which have by good fortune attached themselves to 



the right sort of bee have any chance of surviving, and a great 



many are undoubtedly transported by unsuitable insects, merely 



to die. Hence in all probability the 



reason for the production of so many eggs. 



Some of the successful larvae unconsciously 



select female bees as carriers, but most 



appear to attach themselves to drones, 



whence they transfer themselves to in- 



dividuals of the opposite sex. When one 



of these female bees lays an egg in a 



honey-filled cell, a predatory larva im- 



mediately transfers itself to the egg, and 



the bee roofs in the cell. To fall into the 



honey would be fatal to the larva, but it 



stands firmly on the floating egg, and thus 



j ,1 j TI ,i 



avoids this danger. This scene in the 

 drama lasts for eight days, the larva 



being busily employed eating up the 

 nutritious contents of the egg. Moulting now takes place, and 

 the once active robber is transformed into a plump grub with 

 breathing-holes (stigmata) placed in the upper part of its body, 

 so that it can float in the honey without fear of suffocation. The 

 sweet food-supply is exhausted in about forty days, by which time 

 it is mid- July, and the grub next becomes a motionless false-pupa, 

 but without shedding its skin, which remains as a dry covering to 

 the body. The further stages in the life-history may follow im- 

 mediately. but are usually postponed till the following spring, after 

 a long winter-sleep. In either case the false-pupa assumes once 

 more the form of a grub, the skin, however, being retained as 

 a second dry investment. In about two days the grub becomes a 

 true pupa, from which the perfect insect emerges a month later. 

 Some other Oil- Beetles (species of Melo'e) have much the same 



Fig. 1138. Stages of Sitaris hu mer- 



,/,>, en ia^ed , si x -ie gg ed larva; *, 



VOL. IV. 



107 



