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XIII. On the Adult Larva of the Stylopid^e and their 

 Puparia. By Sir Sidney Smith Saunders, 

 C.M.G. With Kemarks and Figiu-es, by Pro- 

 fessor Westwood, M.A., &c., Pres. Ent. Soc. 



[Eead 2nd May, 1877.] 



The President having called attention to the position 

 of the adult larvte of Stylopidce, preparatory to their 

 ultimate metamorphoses, as indicated by the head-caps of 

 their puparia, in connexion with the remarkable Homop- 

 terous parasite of this family, described in his memoir 

 read at our last meeting, I have brought for inspection 

 two pujDaria of Stylops (from Hampstead), Avith their 

 head-caps re-attached in situ, and several other head-caps 

 of like origin, some having the anterior segments of the 

 puparia still connected therewith; shewing that, contrary 

 to the position in which the imago Stylops emerges, the 

 adult larvfe, like those of Xenos and its allies, are accus- 

 tomed to penetrate between the abdominal segments in a 

 reversed position, with the ventral region uppermost. 



It is well known that all the females of this family 

 occupy the same relative position inter se, when protruded 

 from the abdominal segments of the Hymenopterous in- 

 sects upon which they have subsisted; the co7ivex region 

 of the cephalothorax, outwardly exhibited, being regarded 

 by Siebold as the ventral, and the concave as the dorsal 

 region;* whereas in some genera the males are accus- 

 tomed to emerge in the imago-form -with their feet 

 directed towards the abdomen of their foster-])arents, and 

 in others reversed, as figured by Professor Westwood in 

 our Transactions (Vol. 2, N. S., pi. 16, figs. 1, 2). 



But although the true Stylops, and others reared within 

 the soft-bodied Mellifera, effect their exit from the pupa- 

 rium in Avhat we may term a natural position, with their 

 feet towards the abdomen of the bee, yet, by a careful 

 examination of these puparia it Avill be observed that traces 

 of the leg-sockets of the primal larva-form are perceptible 



* Wicgmann's "Avchiv. fiir Naturgcschictc," 1843, pp. 149, 150. 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1877. — PART III. (oCT.) 



