DOUBTS UPON THE ASSUMED LARVA OF MELOE. 329 



made more than thirty years before the subject was first 

 mooted. It is to be regretted that Frisch is not more 

 ample in his particulars ; for we are still left uncertain 

 at what stage of the developement, or at what change of 

 the skin^ these very active creatures are transformed into 

 trie heavy, dull larvie they become when they have ac- 

 quired their fuU size, — in which state they are well 

 known. The change, we conceive, must be made early, 

 or these larva? must early bury themselves, and thus 

 avoid detection ; otherwise their increased size and ac- 

 tivity would not so entirely have escaped all accidental 

 discovery as they seem to have done. We have given 

 more space to this subject, from its being one of the most 

 interesting inquiries connected with entomology, than 

 oiu- limits would otherwise have justified ; for, in point 

 of interest, it is certainly not exceeded by the obscurity 

 that hangs over the natural history of the Stylops, — in 

 connection with which we may here mention incident- 

 ally, although it bears upon the point we have been al- 

 luding to, that these Slijlops* have been observed to 

 have a hexapod parasite, which were detected creeping 

 out of the head of its larva, protruding through the 

 segments of an Andrena. May not this be the larva of 

 the Pediculus? which is thus necessarily found upon 

 bees, and occasionally upon bee-like flies, Eristalis, 

 Syrphus, &c. ; their instinct being deluded by the resem- 

 blance, when these Diptera have alighted upon flowers, 

 where these Pediculi have found themselves, having 

 strayed from the bee when it visited the blossom. ^Ve 

 throw this out as a suggestion. 



(292.) To pass on from this interesting subject, we 

 observe some curious particulars of structure in this 

 family, in the greatly enlarged head of Horia, a species 

 of which, according to Lansdown Guilding, is parasiti- 

 cal upon the bee Xylocopa teredo; and another species 

 is distinguished by its enormously developed mandibles. 

 The closely allied Cissites has largely incrassated poste- 



• Westwood, Trans. Eiit. Soc. ii. 186. 



