Injuries from Wasps. 429 
probably Meloe barbarus, Lec., as that is a common 
species in California. Mr. Rainbow took as many as seven 
from one worker bee. Fig. 219, B, represents the female 
of Meloe angusticollis, a common species in Michigan and 
the East. I have also received these from Mr. Ham- 
mond, of New York, who took them from his bees. He 
says they make the bees uncomfortable. These are likely 
M. angusticollis. As will be seen, the wing covers are 
short, and the beetle’s abdomen fairly drags with its weight 
of eggs. The eggs are laid in the earth. The larvae when 
first hatched crawl upon some flower, and as occasion per- 
Fig. 219s 
mits, crawl upon a bee and thus are borne to the hive, 
where they feast on eggs, honey and pollen. These 
insects undergo what M. Faber styles hyper-metamorpho- 
sis, as the larva appears in four different forms instead of 
one. Two of these forms show in the figure. The Span- 
ish fly—Cantharides of the shops—is an allied insect. 
Some of our common blister beetles, are very destructive 
to plants. Girard in his excellent work on bees, gives 
illustrations of all the forms of this insect. 
WASPS. 
I have never seen bees injured by wasps. In the South» 
as in Europe, we hear of such depredations. I have re- 
ceived wasps, sent by our southern brothers, which were 
caught destroying bees. The wasp sent me is the large, 
handsome Stizus speciosus, Drury. It is black, with its 
