132 PACKAKD, HUMBLE BEES, ETC. 



which was very extensible, baggy and full of a thin fluid, 

 I examined it under a high power and found multitudes, 

 at least three hundred, of very minute, dust-like Stylops 

 larvae issuing in every direction from the body of the 

 parent. Most of them issued from near the head, over 

 which they ran, as they must do when the parent is in its 

 natural position, in order to get out upon the surface of 

 the bee. The soft body of the female rapidly dried up, 

 causing the death of many of the larva?, and as I was un- 

 able to rear them, my only object in mentioning them now, 

 is to describe briefly the appearance of the female and the 

 young at the time of birth. It appears therefore that the 

 female does not lay eggs, but is viviparous. Siebold was 

 the first to show that the females were such, though ap- 

 terous, wormlike, of so abnormal form and so different 

 from the winged male ; and it seems a little strange that 

 YVestwood and others should call- this form a " larva" 

 when they plainly perceived that its body was filled with 

 the newly hatched young. The head of the single female 

 that fell under my observation resembles very closely the 

 figures of Newport in the Linna?an Transactions ; it is 

 flattened, triangular, nearly equilaterally so, with the apex 

 or mouth-region obtuse, and the. two hinder angles each 

 containing a minute simple eye ; the larger part of the head 

 above consists of the epicranium, which is narrowed in 

 front and its edge convex ; no clypeus, or labrum can be 

 distinguished ; the mandibles are also obsolete, being two 

 flattened portions lying in front of the " gena" and sepa- 

 rated from that region by a very distinct suture : the mouth 

 is transverse and opens on the upper side of the head, 

 while in front lies the rather large labium, and the rounded 

 papilliform maxillae. 



The larvae are in form linear elliptical : head semi-ovate, 

 while the tip of the abdomen is truncate. The sides of 

 the body are continuous, there being no suture between 

 the segments ; seen laterally the larva is thickest at the 

 meta-thoracic ring. Two simple eyes are lodged near the 

 base of the head. The body is so transparent that the 

 intestine can be traced easily to just before the tip, where 

 it ends in a cul de sac. The two anterior pair of legs are 

 much alike ; coxae short ; femora and tibiae small, cylindri- 



