Insects. 2827 



however, he rejects, as being opposed to many apparent anomalies. That such, how- 

 ever, is the fact, Dr. Siebold has — by anatomical investigation — satisfactorily proved ; 

 and Mr. George Newport, in one of the most complete and valuable essays on the 

 subject, has confirmed Dr. Siebold's discovery. In the essay in question will be 

 found many important additions to our previous knowledge of the Stylopites, and a 

 learned and elaborate examination of their affinities to the genus Meloe. The affini- 

 ties, however, between the Stylopites and the Goleoptera, were first pointed out by 

 Mr. Shuckard, in Lardner's ' Cyclopaedia,' 1840 ; his opinions being based upon an 

 examination of certain anatomical peculiarities which may be met with scattered 

 throughout the Coleoptera, Stylops being an instance in which such peculiarities are 

 accumulated. 



In 1847 Mr. Newman published (Zool. 1792) the first part of an " Essay on the 

 Affinities of the Stylopites," which he has concluded during the present year (Zool. 

 2684). In this essay he enters minutely into the positive and comparative anatomy 

 and metamorphosis of these insects, and deduces the inference that they are strictly 

 Coleopterous : in supporting this opinion the author has evinced extensive research, 

 and has brought his usual acuteness of observation and profound reasoning powers to 

 bear on the subject under discussion. 



In the investigation of so difficult a subject, a variety of doubts will arise as to 

 the natural situation of these insects. I am myself, however, of opinion that their 

 natural position is amongst the Coleoptera ; there is nothing in the peculiarities of 

 their structure opposed to such a conclusion : their imperfectly developed oral organs 

 are adapted to all the requirements of their brief span of existence, the only object of 

 which appears to be the perpetuation of the species, and a period of two hours being 

 the extent of its ephemeral duration. The fact of the female being apterous coincides 

 with the condition of that sex in various species of Hymenoptera ; her producing 

 living young is in accordance with the economy of the Aphides, and also of Hippo- 

 bosca. The larva of Stylops, on being developed from the egg, in being active hex- 

 apods, are similar to those of Meloe, Sitaris and Cantharis, and this similarity in all 

 probability extends to Horia, for I have found a similar minute hexapod on a South- 

 American Xylocopa. I am therefore induced to adopt the opinion held by those 

 distinguished naturalists, Messrs. Shuckard, Newport, and Newman : the latter ento- 

 mologist has — by a collection of facts and by his logical deductions — placed the 

 subject in so clear a light, that unless some important and indisputable discoveries 

 are made which prove his conclusions premature, the claim of Stylops to a place 

 among the Coleoptera will be admitted. 



The following are the genera of Hymenoptera which I have observed to be in- 

 fested by the different genera of Stylopites : Sphex, Ammophila, Odynerus, Eumenes 

 and Polistes ; Hylaeus, Halictus and Andrena. 



I have observed that Stylopized bees are the first to make their appearance in 

 spring ; amongst the summer and autumnal species of Andrena I never met with one 

 so infested ; whereas in Halictus I have captured individuals attacked by the parasite 

 in July and August, about the time when the second brood of Halictus appears : were 

 not this the case the continuation of species must cease, supposing Halictophagus to 

 be parasitical on this genus alone. I possess several individuals of the Halictus niti- 

 diusculus of Kirby infested by these parasites, — one with two of the females pro- 

 truding from the interstice between the third and fourth segments : this bee is about 

 two lines and a half in length ; how minute must be the winged parasite ! a glass 



