Bees and their Counterfeits. 171 



quent divisions of the family having rendered another generic 

 name necessary, this beautiful species was attached to the 

 genus Euglossa. 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 belong- 

 ing 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 Euglossa 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 Euglossa dimi- 

 diata is not only extremely different, but its appearance is of 

 that striking character calculated to excite immediate attention. 

 Instead of being soft and furry after the fashion of the humble- 

 bee tribe and their allies, he is entirely hard, smooth, and glitter- 

 ing — 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 pro- 

 vided with a security in the form of a disguise, a defence of 

 another kind has been substituted, in the suit of impenetrable 

 plate-armour, of magnificent green bronze, in which this insect 

 is incased. But I feel convinced that it is entirelv futile to 

 attempt to explain the nature of providential arrangement, and 

 point out the secret purposes for which either apparent analogies 

 or discrepancies were devised. The best explanations offered, 

 indeed, are too full of contradictions to be for a moment seri- 

 ously accepted as revelations of intended purpose. As a ready 

 example of the contradictions to which such speculations must 

 be liable, I may mention here, that although the parasitic bee, 

 which infests the nests of Euglossa dimidiata, is entirely unlike 

 the harvesting-bee, whose home he invades, yet the doubly- 

 unfortunate Euglossa has a second enemy, in the form of a 

 gigantic diptera, whose similarity to the bee is most curious. 

 This enormous fly-bee, Asilus fasciatus, has, it is true, only two 

 wings, but those being of deep brown to half their length, and 

 transparent for the remainder, bear an extraordinary general 

 resemblance to those of the bee; while the colouring of this 

 handsome insect being nearly identical with those of the bee, 

 and the size and shape of the markings being almost identical, 

 the general resemblance becomes very remarkable ; hence the 

 conspicuous appearance of one enemy is rendered utterly useless 

 as a defence, while the seemingly perfect disguise of another 

 apparently favours his fatal entrance to the nest. There is 



