LIFE-HISTORY OF THE OIL-BEETLE. 



295 



vol. xx, p. 297) first rightly concluded that it was carried into tho nests of bees, and 

 described, in addition, the full-grown larva from exuvial characters, and the coarctate 

 larva and pupa which he found in the cells of AnthopJiora refusa. He failed, however, 

 to fill the gap between the first and full-grown larva ; and this Fabre first iuferentially 

 did in ISbS (Ann. d. Sc. Xat., Zool., t. ix, p. 265) by tracing the analogous stages of 

 Sitaris. 



The female Aleloe is very prolific. She lays at three or four different intervals, in 

 loose irregular masses in the ground, and may produce from three to four thousand 

 eggs. These are soft, whitish, cylindrical, and rounded at each end. I'hey give birth 

 to the triungulins, which, a few days after hatching — the number depending on the 

 temperature— run actively about and climb on to Composite, Ranunculaceous, and other 

 flowers, from which they attach themselves to bees and flies that visit the flowers. 

 Fastening alike to many hairy Diptera and to Hymenoptera which can be of little or 

 no service to them, many are doomed to perish, and only the few fortunate ones are 

 carried to the proper cells of some AntJiopliora. Once in the cell, the triunguiin falls 

 upon the bee-egg, which it soon exhausts. A molt then takes place and the second 

 larva is produced. Clumsy and 



with locomotive power reduced ^ ff^^"^^^ 



to a miuimum,this second larva '^ 



devours the thickened honey 

 stored up for the bee-larva. It 

 then changes to the pseudo- 

 pupa with the skin of the sec- 

 ond larva only partially shed . 

 then to a third larva within the 

 partially rent pseudo - pupal 

 skin, and finally to the true 

 pupa and imago. These differ- 

 ent changes of form are known 

 by the name of hypermeta- 

 morphoses, the term first given 

 them by Fabre to distinguish 

 them from the normal changes 

 from larva to pupa and imago, 

 experienced by insects generally. The triunguliu or first larva (Fig. 28, a) is character- 

 ized by a prominent labrum, very stout thighs, unarmed shanks, three broad and sub- 

 spatulate tarsal claws, feeble and reduced trophi, untoothed jaws, 3-jointed autenuie^^ 

 ending in a long seta, and four anal setae, the two inner ones longest. When the abdo- 

 men is shrunken the general aspect is very much that of Fediculus, and it is hardly 

 surprising that some of the early describers so determined it. 



HISTORY OF SITARIS. 



The history of Sitaris is also well known and agrees very closely with that of ITeloe. 

 Its first larva was figured many years ago by Westwood (Introduction, &c., Fig. 34, 5) 



s' My figure is from specimens affecting the mature honey-bee at San Diego, Cal. It corresponds very 

 closely ■with Newport's original figure and description of that of the Eurr pcan 21. cicatricosus, and be- 

 longs doubtless to one of our Pacific coast species, probably J/, barbari/s, Lee. It is 2"". long. The 

 bead is produced in front, with a strong labrum, beyond which the smooth jaws do not reach; the an- 

 tennae are 3-jointed, and similar to those of cicatricosus ; the mouth-parts are diminutive, the maxillary 

 palpus 3-jointed, the 3d joint longer than the others together and tipped with a few short, weak points,- 

 the labial palpus is two'jointed; the coxae are armed with a few very strong spines; the tVmora are very 

 stout and faintly imbiicated; .the tibiae are unarmed, and tlie tarsal claws subspatulate. the middle one 

 pale, J longer and twice as broad as the two outer ones, which are dark, articulate, close fogeiher, and 

 curve slightly outward. The first pair of stigmata are (^isiinctly dorsal and on the mesotboracic joint. 

 The dorsal hind border of the abdomina' joints is armed with 8 spinous hairs, the 4 intermediate onrs 

 only half as long as the others. Xewport is evidently wrong in considering the jaws articulate in 

 themselves, while Candeze is wrong in describing the antenna? as 5-joiuted (Jfe-w. dc la Snc. Boy. des Sc. , 

 viii, p. 530, Li^ge, 1353). Packard's figure of what is in all rrobability 21. anjusticolis Say, fails to io- 

 dicate the characteristic mesotboracic spiracles, and probably makes the two outer anal setae too short — 

 these aral appendices being in reality nothing more than iirolonged spinous hairs, such as occur on the 

 other joints. Ihe form of "the abdomen varies, contracting somewhat with age. Newport remarks on 

 the similarity of the triungulins of 2IeWe violaceus. 2£. prose ^rabceus, and 21. cicatricosus being so great 

 that he could discover no diflerences. Jndaing from figures sent me by M. Lichtenstein, verj- slight 

 differences occur in tho relative length of the antenna] joints, and none other. 



Fig. 23. — Meloe. — a. first larva; b, claws: c, antenna: d, max- 

 illary palpus; e, labial palpus: /, mandible; g, an abdominal 

 joint; h, imago, $ ; i, antenna of <i". (After Eiley.) 



