Insects. 949 



to the fact which we were seeking to establish. — W. S. Lewis ; 44, St. Michael's Hill, 

 Bristol, March, 1845. 



Note on Mr. Smith's papers on British Bees. Several excellent papers have also 

 been published in * The Zoologist,' by our Curator, Mr. Smith. These comprise 

 descriptions of new species, with a complete revision of the families of British Humble 

 Bees (Bombus) ; the Wasp Bees (Nomada) ; the Leaf-cutter Bees (Megachile) ; and 

 the Mason Bees (Osmia). It is much to be regretted that Mr. Smith should have 

 preferred to publish these little monographs on the Bees scattered through a periodical 

 journal, instead of allowing them to grace our own Transactions, &c. — Mr. Newport's 

 Address to the Entomological Society of London, 1845. 



[On what principle is it to be regretted that these excellent papers are made public 

 property, instead of being restricted to the few wealthy individuals who purchase the 

 Transactions in question ? Why lock up knowledge from any one who seeks it ? — 

 Edward Newman."] 



Economy of the Stylopites, minute Parasites on Bees. The species on which Dr. 

 Siebold has made his observations, are Stylops Melittae, and Xenos Rossii and Spheci- 

 darum. The diminutive parasitic Strepsiptera, the giant of which scarcely exceeds 

 one-fourth of an inch in length, are of especial interest to the Society. Discovered 

 and first described by our venerable friend Mr. Kirby, we have adopted the Stylops as 

 our emblem ; any elucidation of its heretofore obscure Natural History must therefore 

 be of particular interest to us. This has been supplied by Dr. Siebold, who now 

 shows that the Strepsiptera undergo a singular metamorphosis; that the males and 

 females differ from each other ; the metamorphosis of the males being complete, they 

 alone being furnished with wings ; the females, on the contrary, have neither legs, 

 wings, nor eyes, and greatly resemble larvae. These females are viviparous, and never 

 quit the bodies of the Hymenoptera in which they live as parasites. The young Strep- 

 siptera, at the moment that they burst the eggs in which they are developed, within 

 the body of the parent, have six legs, and are furnished with organs of manducation ; 

 these are the diminutive objects described in Mr. Westwood's paper, in a former 

 volume of our Transactions, as the parasites of Stylops ; and as such they were 

 regarded at first by Klug, and also by Dr. Siebold. These little hexapodous larvae 

 infest the surface of the abdomen of bees, within which their parent-mothers live and 

 die. In this way the young Stylops is carried into the nests of the Hymenoptera, 

 and escaping on the bodies of the larvae, penetrate their soft skins, and become para- 

 sites on them as their parents have been in the bodies of the female bees. These 

 larvae shed their skins, become apodal, and move very slowly. They have then a 

 distinct mouth and jaws, and a simple ccecal intestine, but no anal aperture. The 

 body is formed of nine segments, of which the first is the largest, and may be consi- 

 dered as a cephalothorax. In this state the males are easily distinguished from the 

 females. The cephalothorax of the male larva is conical and arched, and the last 

 segment of the body is straight and pointed. In the females the cephalothorax is 

 truncated or rounded in front, and flattened, or scale-like, in the rest of its extent, and 

 the terminal segment of the body is large and rounded. — Id. 



[I have not seen Dr. Siebold's paper, but from Mr. Newport's abstract, some 

 points do not appear satisfactory ; for instance, that the larvae become apodal after 

 possessing legs. The communication, however, is one of great interest, and I hope my 

 correspondent, Mr. Smith, will not allow the subject to drop : he is peculiarly quali- 

 fied for the investigation of this hitherto obscure history. — Edward Newman.] 



