PROVISION FOR REARING THE YOUNG. II9 



The Anthophora has made her chambers, and with 

 the greatest care has filled each of them with honey. 

 Then in the midst she deposits an egg, which remains 

 floating on the surface like a little boat; when her 

 task is accomplished, the mother passes to a new cell 

 to confide to it another of her descendants. During 

 this time the parasite larva hastily descends the 

 abdominal hairs and allows itself to fall on the &^'g 

 of the Anthophora, to be then borne upon it as 

 upon a raft ; its fall must take place at the precise 

 instant which will enable it to embark without falling 

 into the honey, in which just now it would be glued 

 fast, and perish. This series of circumstances results 

 only in the introduction of a single Sitaris into a 

 chamber ; the moment which must be profited by is 

 too short for many of them to seize. If the female 

 Anthophora carries others hidden in her hairs, they 

 are obliged to await a new hatching to let themselves 

 glide off. Thus enclosed with the ^^g of the Antho- 

 phora and its provision of honey, the larva has no 

 other rival to fear, and may alone utilise the whole 

 store. This parasitism has to such an extent become 

 a habit with the species, that the larva's organisation 

 has become modified by it. At the moment when it 

 falls into the cell it cannot feed on honey. It is 

 indispensable for its development that it should first 

 devour the zg'g on which it floats ; it can at this 

 period be nourished by no other food. In acting in 

 this way it also frees itself from a voracious being 

 who would require much food. This first repast lasts 

 about eight days, at the end of which it undergoes 

 a moult, takes another form, and begins to float on 

 the honey, gradually devouring it, for at this stage 

 it becomes able to assimilate honey. Slowly its 



