46 
SANTAEEM. 
Chap. I. 
not work or store up food for their progeny, but deposit 
their ova in the cells of their comrades. Some of these, 
it is well known, counterfeit the dress and general 
figure of their victims. To all appearance this simi- 
larity of shape and colours between the parasite and its 
victim is given for the purpose of deceiving the poor 
hard-working bee, which would otherwise revenge itself 
by slaying its plunderers. Some parasitic bees, however, 
have no resemblance to the species they impose upon ; 
probably they live together on more friendly terms, or 
have some other means of disarming suspicion. Many 
Dipterous insects are also parasitic on bees, and wear 
the same dress as the species they live upon. That the 
dress of the victimisers is arranged with especial refer- 
ence to their prey, I think is proved by what I observed 
at Santarem. The genera of the parasites here are not 
the same as in Europe ; and when they counterfeit 
working bees, it is the peculiarly-coloured species of 
their own country that are imitated, and not those of 
any other region. The European genus Apathus, which 
mimics European Humble-bees, is not found in South 
America ; but the common Bombus of Santarem, which 
is remarkable in being wholly of a sooty-black colour, is 
attended by a sooty black parasite of a widely-different 
genus, the Eurytis funereus. Many of the little Meliponae 
have their counterfeits in small Diptera of the family 
Syrphidge ; and the brilliant green or blue bees of the 
country (Euglossa) have their imitators in parasitic bees 
of equally bright colours, belonging to genera unknown 
out of the countries where the Euglossse are found.* 
* These are Melissa, Mesocheira, Thalestria, &c. 
