Injuries from Wasfs, 



429 



probably Meloe barbarus, Lee, 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. 219. 



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, Driiry. It is black, with its 



