DISCUSSION RELATIVE TO MELOE. 327 



name, is the larva of tliis insect ; and that it resorts to 

 the bees for the purpose of being conveyed into their 

 nests, to feed there upon the provision collected for the 

 larva bee. Some degree of plausibility is given to these • 

 statements, from the circumstance of very similarly con- 

 structed and equally active creatures being bred from 

 the yellow masses of eggs deposited in excavated holes 

 by the Meloe ; and thus these statements have received 

 the sanction, and grown into the belief, of many emi- 

 nent entomologists. Having thus had the seal of au- 

 thority stamped upon them by such men as De Geer, 

 Latreille, St. Fargeau, and Erichson, it might be con- 

 sidered rash to question their accuracy ; for this opinion 

 would, of course, be the result of careful and rigorous 

 inquiry. There is, however, drawn out opposite this 

 formidable array, a phalanx of great men, whose pa- 

 tient accuracy of investigation is not to be impugned, or 

 their judgment questioned ; for here we have Swam- 

 merdara, Kirby, Walckenaer, and Leon Dufour, who 

 all treat it as an error ; and the strongest probability of 

 correctness consorts itself with them. The first cir- 

 cumstance that strikes us in the inquiry, is, the appa- 

 rently infirm footing that the science stands upon ; for 

 here we have a dispute between men competent in every 

 respect for the investigation, whether a certain creature 

 is a perfect insect, — for if it be a Pediculus it must be so, 

 — or the larva of another in its first stage of develope- 

 ment ! Upon the very threshold, we have the strongest 

 presumptive evidence that it cannot be the latter ; for 

 success has never accompanied even the greatest care to 

 breed these supposed larvse, although many individuals 

 have tried ; and they have still remained the same little 

 active, hexapod, double-tailed creatures they originally 

 were, — neither increasing in size, nor altering in shape, — 

 and have thus continued until they have at last dispersed 

 or died. The arguers pro have attributed this to their 

 not having proper food, or some particular in their 

 mysterious economy, insoluble even to the most anxious 

 wish to elucidate the whole difficulty of the question ; 



Y 4 



