852 THE BEE-KEEPERS MANUAL. 
aspects of the harvesting bee and the parasite are very strik- 
ing; they are, in fact, so much so, that the insects might be 
thought to belong to entirely different families. The beautiful 
Brazilian bee, Zuglossa dimidiata, has an attendant purasite as 
totally unlike it as it is possible to conceive of insects of the 
same order. Euglossa dimidiata is one of the most beautifully 
and variously coloured of the whole bee tribe. A specimen 
was captured by Mr. Bates, at Para, in the Brazils; and it is 
found in other tropical parts of South America. Latreille 
described this handsome species in Schomberg’s “Fauna of 
British Guiana;” but it had been previously described by 
Fabricius, from specimens taken at Cayenne, and named by 
him Apis dimidiata; subsequent divisions of the family having 
rendered another generic name necessary, this beautiful species 
was attached to the genus Huglossa. It forms its nest by boring 
tubular hollows in large reeds, and there is a specimen of a 
reed in the British Museum bored in this manner by this bee, 
or by a bee belonging to a closely allied genus. 
Into such a tube the parasite bee penetrates, for the purpose 
of depositing its egg in the cells which have been furnished 
with honey or pollen by Huglossa dimidiata. In this case, 
in order to support the theory of Messrs. Kirby and Spence, 
it would be more than usually necessary that the intruder 
should be furnished with a very complete disguise, as he must, 
in such a narrow tubular home, necessarily come to very 
close quarters with the master of the house. Yet, on the 
contrary, the whole aspect of the parasite of Huglossa dimi- 
diata is not only extremely different, but its appearance is 
of that striking character calculated to excite immediate at- 
tention. Instead of being soft and furry, after the fashion 
of the humble-bee tribe and their allies, he is entirely hard, 
smooth, and glittering—the entire body, thorax and abdomen, 
and also the legs, being of a light vivid metallic green, like that 
of our rose-beetle. It might be urged, on the other hand, that 
although not provided with a security in the form of a dis- 
guise, a defence of another kind has been substituted, in the 
suit of impenetrable plate-armour, of magnificent green bronze, 
in which this insect is encased But I feel convinced that it is 
