240 ANIMAL LIFE 



they are carried down the dark shaft and into the 

 chambers where the bee's eggs are laid and the pollen 

 stored. Here they alight, wait until an egg is laid, 

 and then fight for its possession. One obtains a hold, 

 a second attacks the first and kills him, only to find 

 that a third is at work. Finally one alone survives, 

 and then the real tragedy begins. These Meloe 

 larvae require the entire yolk of a bee egg in order to 

 reach the next phase of their life-history. No substi- 

 tute, nothing less than this, gives the needful stimulus 

 for further development. The survivor, successful up 

 to this point, now finds only a partial egg. This he 

 devours, but the amount of yolk is just too little. He 

 fails to achieve transformation, and joins that crowd 

 of failures to which he has despatched so many of his 

 fellows. Few indeed of the yellow ' triungulins ' 

 that ride as so many Pucks on the bee's back survive 

 the family quarrel. But to those that do, a strange 

 experience is allotted. They become transformed 

 into larvae of another type, no longer active and restless, 

 but swollen and buoyant. Their diet changes, and 

 for forty days they swim in the stores of honey which 

 Antlwphora laid up for her larvae. Having devoured 

 this, the Meloe-grub pupates and in from one to 

 several months issues as a perfect beetle. 



Butterflies. — The life-histories of moths and butter- 

 flies are to those of beetles as modern events to those 

 of ancient times. They are passed under conditions 

 more familiar to us than those of beetle life, often, 

 indeed, in the full light of the sun, and amidst the most 



