PARASITISM OF MELECTA ABMATA. 429 



marked antagonism or bellicosity. The attitude might truly be 

 described as neutral. I cannot vouch for the behaviour of the 

 host to the parasite actually detected in its burrow, but I 

 observed several occasions on which Melecta was quite near the 

 entrance of the tunnel of an entering pollen -laden Anthophora. 

 In such cases the host entered and left its nest without any 

 evident notice of the parasite which seemed to stroll non- 

 chalantly into various burrows and select one at leisure. 

 Sometimes a Melecta would pass near an Anthophora, busily 

 engaged in smoothing the inside of its nest with its mouth- 

 parts, and here also both insects evidently ignored one another. 

 In no case did I see any combats such as Shuckard describes. 



The Anthophora showed a considerable decrease in number 

 last year, while in the early summer of this year the reduction 

 was still more marked. Although the inhabitants of the cottage 

 had made an abortive attempt to get rid of the pest when it was 

 at its maximum by plastering up some of the burrows, it seemed 

 clear that the progressive decrease was mostly due to the 

 parasitic action of Melecta, which could easily be collected in 

 some quantity at breeding time. In this case other parasites of 

 Anthophora, such as the genus Anthophorabia, Monodontomerus, 

 and Heteropus, were not observed. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. 



