210 BllITISH BEES.. 



eggs. They pass .the winter and spring in the larva 

 state^ and undergo their transformations into pupa and 

 imago with but slight interval, and only shortly before 

 the appearance of the perfect insect. When first pre- 

 senting themselves they are certainly very handsome 

 insects, and if carefully killed preserve tlieir beauty for 

 many years in the cabinet. I have found the retusa, 

 Linn., (Kirby's Haworthana) in enormous profusion at 

 Hampstead Heath, indeed, so numerous were they, that 

 late in the afternoon, upon approaching the colony, they, 

 in returning home, would strike as forcibly against me 

 as is often done by Melolontha vulgaris or Geotrupes 

 stercorarius. In equal abundance I have found the 

 A. acervorum at Charlton, where I have experienced 

 a similar battery. This is the insect which Gilbert 

 White, in his letters from Selborne, describes as having 

 found in numbers at Mount Caburn, near Lewes, a spot 

 I have often visited in my schoolboy days. This sec- 

 tion is subject to the parasitism of the genus Melecta, 

 whose incursions are very repugnant to them, and which 

 they exhibit in very fierce pugnacity, for if they catch 

 the intruder in her invasion they will draw her forth and 

 deliver battle with great fury. I have seen both the 

 combatants rolling in the dust, the combat and escape 

 made perhaps easier to the Mdecta by the load the 

 Anthophora was bearing home. Upon the larva also of 

 this bee it is said that the larva of the Heteromerous 

 genus Meloe is nurtured ; this I have never been able to 

 verify, but I believe the fact is fully confirmed. This- 

 beetle is closely allied to the Cantharides, or blister- 

 beetles, and it itself exudes a very acrimonious yellow 

 liquid when touched or irritated. Two of the Chalci- 

 did(S also infest their larvse, which they destroy ; one is 



