296 EEPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



from specimens obtained from Audouin, who found the female Sitaris in the cells of 

 dnthojihora inclosed in its thin pseudo-pUpal and second larval skins, which Audouin 

 erroneously took to be the pellicle of the devoured bee-larva. But the complete life 

 history of the genus was first given by Fabre in 1857 {Ann. d. Sc. Nat., ZooL, t. vii, p. 

 299 ; t. ix, p. 265), who studied the S. humeralis Fabr., while that of S. colletis V.-M. has 

 been more recently given by M, Valery-Mayet, of Montpellier, France (Ann. Soc. Ent. 

 de Fr. 1875, p; 65), from whom I have specimens in all stages. The former species in- 

 fests the nests of Anthophora, the latter those of Colletes. In the former the newly 

 hatched larvte hybernate in huddled masses in the galleries of the bee ; in the latter 

 they hybernate in the bee-cell, slowly feeding while the temperature permits ; but such 

 differences doubtless depend on the relative earliness in the autumn that the eggs are 

 laid. The first larva or triunguliu (Fig. 29, a) agrees very much in the head tarsal 



and general characters, with that 

 of Meloe, but diifers in several im- 

 portant particulars, and especially 

 in having a pair of pre-anal spin- 

 rerets, from which is secreted a 

 serous sticky fluid, which aids 

 the animal in holding firmly to 

 the bee that is to carry it into the 

 nest. A pre-anal pair of claspers 

 also assists in this work.^^ xhe 

 hypermetamorphoses are very 

 similar to those of Meloe^ The 



-^ „„ ^ ^ , , , . triungulin, after absorbing the 



Fig. 2!).— Sitaris.— a, firat larva; g, anal spinnerets and i , , n 



clasps of same; &, second larva; e, pseudo-pnpa; /, third larva; contents or the bee-egg, molts, and 

 c, pupa; d, imago, ?. (After V.-Mayet.) thereafter floats upon and devours 



the honey — the pseudo-pupa, third larva, and true pupa all forming in due time within 

 the second larval skin. The female does not feed, and on account of her heavy abdo- 

 men travels but a short distance from the bee-burrows where she developed. 



HISTORY OF HOKNIA. 



While the natural history of none of our North American species of Meloe has been 

 traced or recorded, they will, beyond all doubt, be-found to agree with their European 

 congeners in their partial parasitism on mason-bees. In examining the cells of AniJio- 

 pJiora dbrupta^^ Say, I have so far failed to discover that Meloe \8 parasitic upon that spe- 

 cies, but Meloe is, in reality, very rare around Saint Louis. I have, however, found on 

 four different occasions in the Fall, within the sealed cells of the bee mentioned, a very 

 interesting and anomalous Meloid (Hornia minutipennis, Eiley), which may be taken to 

 represent the typical partial parasitism of the family in the United States. There is 

 a tendency in the family to wing-reduction, but in no hitherto described species is the 

 reduction carried to such extremes as in this (PI. IV, Fig. 13), both sexes having the 

 eljtra as rudimentary as in the $ of tLe well-known European glow-worm (Lampyris 

 noctiluca). Another characteristic feature is its simple tarsal claws, which, together 

 with the rudimentary wings and the heavy body, show it to be a degradational form. 

 Aniliopliora abrupta, its host, builds mostly in steeply-inclined or perpendicular clay 

 banks, and, in addition, extends a tube of clay from the entrance. The burrow has 

 usually two branches which decline about an inch from the surface of the bank, and 

 6 or 8 cells are arranged end to end. By means of saliva the inside of the cell is ren- 



68 The small eize (about 1™™ long) and the hairless and spineless nature of this larva contrast 

 strongly with the other tt inngulins considered in this paper. The tarsal claws ara somewhat narrower 

 than in Meloe, and unicolorous. A few soft lateral hairs are represented on the abdominal joints in the 

 figure, but they are scarcely perceptible under the strongest microscope. Nor do any hairs or spines 

 appear in any of the subsequent stages, even oa the true pupa. The pseudo-pupa lacks the promi- 

 nent lateral ridge so striking in the( thers. The stigmata are so faint in the triungulin tbatMayet could 

 not resolve them; but with proper light an-l specimens rendered transparent I have discerned them 

 in the same positions as in Meloe. The mandibles are toothed. 



^^=A. sponsa, Smith. 



