Insects, 1797 



entomologists in question, have never met with the pupa of the male 

 Stylops, or they never would have published the erroneous figures and 

 accounts to which I refer ; their supposed pupa is either the adult 

 female, or the larva of the same sex. 



The adult male Stylops usually emerges in May or June : it leaves 

 a vast and unsightly cavity in the abdomen of the bee, and in this ca- 

 vity have been found two crumpled up pellicles, from which it has 

 escaped, the first, doubtless, on assuming the pupa state ; the second, 

 on attaining that of imago. Away it flies, in an undulating zig-zag 

 manner, and is distinguished from all other insects of its size by the 

 whiteness of its wings : it seeks those sunny spots in which the 

 Andrenae so much delight, and alights on the bees themselves in 

 search of one whose abdomen contains an adult female : the bee, thus 

 visited, appears excessively annoyed, and uses all manner of extra- 

 ordinary exertions to get rid of its unwelcome, but tenacious com- 

 panion. The abdomen of the male Stylops is comparatively small 

 and slender; it is extremely pliable, is capable of being twisted about 

 in all directions, and is used for the purpose of smoothing down or 

 cleaning the hind wings. 



The adult female Stylops is totally different from the male, being 

 little more than an apod maggot ; as far as the observations of natu- 

 ralists have extended, there is no trace of legs, no distinct head, and, 

 in fact, no single character, except the reproductive faculty to induce 

 the conclusion that the creature has arrived at maturity. It never 

 leaves the abdomen of the bee, but there remains until death, which 

 probably takes place as soon as the young have escaped, and the 

 body of the parent has become a mere empty sac. The head is 

 deeply immersed in the bee, the anal segment or telum protruding be- 

 tween the segments of the bee's abdomen : this position is, of course, 

 equally adapted for receiving the embraces of the male, and for allow- 

 ing free egress for the young. The telum is remarkably separated 

 from the remaining segments by a kind of neck : it seems to serve as 

 a pouch or marsupium for the reception of the newly-hatched 

 larvae, which, after descending from the ovary, where it would appear 

 they quit the egg, accumulate here by hundreds. Through a trans- 

 verse slit in this marsupium, the larvae escape and spread themselves 

 over the abdomen of the bee as already described ; this transverse 

 slit is on the upper side of the marsupium and placed considerably 

 before its extremity. All writers agree in describing the marsupium 

 as the head, and the slit as the mouth ; they also usually consider the 

 perfect female to be the pupa, without noticing the sex, and without 

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