218 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. (April, — 
abdomen travels but a short distance from the bee-burrows where 
she developed. 
History of Hornia—While the natural history of none of our 
N.. A. species of Meloé has been traced or recorded, they will, 
beyond all doubt, be found to agree with their European con- 
geners in their partial parasitism on Mason-bees. In examining 
the cells of Anthophora sponsa Smith, I have thus far failed to dis- 
cover that Meloë is parasitic upon that species, but Meloë is in 
reality very rare around St. Louis. I have, however, found on 
four different occasions in the Fall, within the sealed cells of the 
bee mentioned, a very interesting and anomalous Meloid (/ornia 
_ minutipennis Riley), which may be taken to represent the typical 
partial parasitism of the family in the United States. There isa 
tendency in the family to wing reduction, but in no hitherto 
described species is the reduction carried to such extremes as in 
this (Plate 1, fig. 13) both sexes having the elytra as rudimentary _ 
as in the 2 of the well-known European Glow-worm (Lampyris 
noctiluca). Another characteristic feature is its simple tarsal 
claws, which, together with the rudimentary wings and the heavy 
body, show it to be a degradational form. Anthophora sponsa, 
its host, builds mostly in steeply-inclined or perpendicular clay 
banks, and, in addition, extends a tube of clay from the entrance. 
The burrow of this bee has usually two branches which decline 
about an inch from the surface of the bank, and six or eight cells 
are arranged end to end. By means of saliva the inside of the 2 
cell is rendered impervious to the moisture of the honey and 
bee-bread stored in it for the young. It is evident that this 
clumsy Meloid will have difficulty in crawling out of or about — 
the cells, and it is probably subterranean and seldom, if ever, 
leaves the bee gallery. The male can climb and drag his body, — 
but with some difficulty, up a steep surface if rough, and, as he 
does not leave the bee-cell till spring, when the Anthophora tubes 
are very generally broken and have fallen, he may possibly wan- 
der a short distance from the mouth of the bee-burrow; but the 
female will naturally possess less power of locomotion. The 
triungulin is yet unknown, but the ultimate stage of the second 
larva as well as the coarctate larva, as shown by the distene 
and unruptured skins, exhibit the ordinary family characteristics, 
~ the legs and mouth-parts being atrophied in the former, and 
-~ merely tuberculous in the latter. The lateral ridge, as found 10 
