210 
BRITISH BEES. 
eggs. They pass the winter and spring in the larva 
state, and undergo their transformations into pupa and 
imago with but slight interval, and only shortly before 
the appearance of the perfect insect. When first pre¬ 
senting themselves they are certainly very handsome 
insects, and if carefully killed preserve their beauty for 
many years in the cabinet. I have found the retusa, 
Linn., (Kirby’s Haworthana,) in enormous profusion at 
Hampstead Heath, indeed, so numerous were they, that 
late in the afternoon, upon approaching the colony, they, 
in returning home, would strike as forcibly against me 
as is often done by Melolontha vulgaris or Geotrupes 
stercorarius . In equal abundance I have found the 
A. acervorum at Charlton, where I have experienced 
a similar battery. This is the insect which Gilbert 
•» 
White, in his letters from Selborne, describes as having 
found in numbers at Mount Caburn, near Lewes, a spot 
I have often visited in my schoolboy days. This sec¬ 
tion is subject to the parasitism of the genus Melecta, 
whose incursions are very repugnant to them, and which 
they exhibit in very fierce pugnacity, for if they catch 
the intruder in her invasion they will draw her forth and 
deliver battle with great fury. I have seen both the 
combatants rolling in the dust, the combat and escape 
made perhaps easier to the Melecta by the load the 
Anthophora was bearing home. Upon the larva also of 
this bee it is said that the larva of the Heteromerous 
genus Melo'e is nurtured ; this I have never been able to 
verify, but I believe the fact is fully confirmed. This 
beetle is closelv allied to the Cantharides, or blister- 
beetles, and it itself exudes a very acrimonious yellow 
liquid when touched or irritated. Two of the Chalci- 
didee also infest their larvse, which they destroy; one is 
