PARASITIC BEETLES. 513 



It is generally to be found on flowers, licking up their sweet 

 juices by means of a brush-like apparatus attached to the mouth. 

 The wing-cases of most of the species are bright red, barred or 

 spotted with purple. 



The larva is of a beautiful red, and is hatched from an egg 

 placed in the cell occupied by the bee-grub. As soon as it is 

 hatched, it proceeds to feed \ipon the bee-grub, and devours it. 

 Unlike many insects with similar habits, it is not content with 

 a single grub, but proceeds from cell to cell, devouring all their 

 inhabitants. "When it has eaten to the full, it conceals itself in 

 the cell, and spins a cocoon of rather small dimensions in com- 

 parison with its own size. In process of time, it is developed 

 into a perfect insect, and then breaks out of its cocoon and 

 leaves the hive, secure from the bees, whose stings cannot pene- 

 trate the homy mail in which it is encased. 



Theke is another beetle which is parasitic upon snails, and 

 which, in its larval and pupal states, is only to be found within 

 those molluscs. Its scientific name is Drilus ^vescens, the 

 latter name being given to it in honour of its yellow-tinted 

 wing-cases, which present a pretty contrast with the black 

 thorax. It is a little beetle, scarcely exceeding a quarter of an 

 inch in length, and is remarkable tor the beautiful comb-like 

 antennae of the male. As for the female, she is so unlike her 

 mate that she has been described as a difierent insect. She has 

 no pretensions to beauty, and can scarcely be recognised as a 

 beetle, her form being that of a mere soft-bodied grub. More- 

 over, th& size of the two sexes is notably different. The male 

 is, as has already been observed, only about a quarter of an inch 

 long, while the female is not far from an inch in length, and is 

 broader than the length of her mate, antennae included. 



This curious insect lives in the body of snails, the common 

 banded snail of our gardens being its usual prey. When it is 

 about to- change into the perfect state, it makes a curious cocoon, 

 of a fibrous substance, which has been well likened to common 

 tobacco, the scent as well as the form increasing the resemblance. 

 The grub or larva of this beetle bears a very great resemblance 

 to the perfect female, and indeed is so similar that none but an 

 entomologist could distinguish the two creatures. It is famished 

 with a number of false legs, as well as with a forked appendage 

 at the end of the tail, by which it is enabled to force its way 

 into the body of its victims. The head is pointed, and the jaws 

 are very powerful. 



I. L 



