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48 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



these are the larvae of Stylops; by the aid of a magnifying-glass 

 they may be seen to issue from the transverse apertm-e on the 

 thorax : when the bee re-enters the cell, or settles upon flowers, 

 these diminutive creatures will of course occasionally be depo- 

 sited, and by these means, w^hen other bees visit the flowers, 

 they attach themselves to them and are carried to their nests. 

 Judging from the multitude of larvae produced by each female 

 StylopSy amounting to many hundreds in each case, and the 

 rarity of the perfect insect, the majority must perish, probably 

 in their larval condition. From the fact of seldom more than two 

 Stylops being found to infest the same bee, we may suppose 

 that to be the largest number which infests one larva of an 

 Andrena ; they undergo their changes in the body of the bee, 

 the male on its final transformation becoming an active winged 

 insect, the female remaining a mere apod, attached for life to 

 the bee which nourished it. A most complete and interesting 

 summar)^ of the observations of entomologists on these parasites, 

 will be found in the twentieth volume of the ' Transactions of 

 the Linnsean Society,' by Mr. George Newport, who has in this 

 paper entered most minutely into the anatomy, functions and 

 development of these remarkable parasites, being the most in- 

 teresting and complete essay on the subject yet written. 



There are still other parasites to be noticed, which will occa- 

 sionally be found on the bodies of these bees ; the first to be 

 noticed is a small orange-coloured Pediculus, which is about 

 one-tenth of an inch in length ; this is the larva of Meloe; I have 

 several times reared these hexapods from the eggs of that beetle. 

 For the most com.plete account of their history, reference must be 

 made to the twentieth volume of the ^ Linna^an Transactions/ 

 which contains Mr. George Newport's most interesting memoir 

 on Meloe cicatricostis ; in this paper it is shown that the larva 

 of the beetle feeds on that of Anthophora pilipes ; but it re- 

 mains to be proved, that the larva of an Andrena can serve 

 as food for the larva of a Meloe; I am inclined to think this 

 can never be the case, and that the fact of our finding them on 

 these bees is a mere indication of the usual habit of the larvae in 

 attaching themselves to any insect which comes in their way, for 

 we as constantly find them on Diptera and flower-visiting Cole- 

 optera as upon the Andrenidce : it has been shown that a larva 

 of Anthophora will nourish that of Meloe, but so small a larva 

 as that of Andrena can I think scarcely answer that purpose ; I 

 have however included them, but merely as supposed parasites 

 on Andrena, 



We now come to the last supposed parasite on these bees ; it 

 is found on their bodies, and exactly resembles in form the 

 last-mentioned, but is of a brown-black colour, and is full twice 



