Il8 THE INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. 



own larvae, if it had not the misfortune to be watched 

 by one of these intriguing Coleoptera. Wherever in 

 Provence there is a perpendicular wall, natural or 

 artificial, a little cliff, a sloping ditch, or the wall of 

 one of those caves which the people of the country 

 use for putting their tools in, the Anthophora hollows 

 out galleries, at the bottom of which he builds a 

 certain number of chambers. He fills each of them 

 with honey, places in it an egg which floats in the 

 midst of this little lake of nectar, and closes it all up. 

 The Sitaris covets this honey to nourish its offspring, 

 and the chamber to shelter it. After having dis- 

 covered one of the galleries of which I have spoken, 

 the female Sitaris comes about the beginning of 

 September to lay her eggs, which are numerous, being 

 not generally fewer than two thousand. In the fol- 

 lowing month the larvae appear ; they are black, and 

 swarm in a little heap mixed up with the remains of 

 egg-shells. They vegetate in this condition for a 

 long time, and may still be found there in May. At 

 this period they have become more active, and, in 

 order to complete their development, are thinking 

 of profiting by their favourable situation near the 

 entrance to a gallery of the Hymenoptera; when a male 

 Anthophora comes within reach, two or three of them 

 catch hold of him and climb on to his thorax. They 

 maintain themselves there by clinging to the hairs. 

 At the moment of fertilisation the male, thus bur- 

 dened, comes in contact with the female ; the coleo- 

 pterous larvae then pass on to her, so that, according to 

 Fabre's expression, the meeting of the sexes brings 

 death and life to the eggs at the same time. Henceforth 

 fixed on this laying insect, the little Sitaris remain 

 quiet, and have only to wait ; their future is assured. 



