United States or Curaçao ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
While my enthusiasm had not had time to cool at the sight, momentarily repeated, of a young Sitaris perched upon an Anthophora's egg floating in the centre of the little pool of honey, it might well have burst all restraints on beholding the contents of one of these cells. On the black, liquid honey a wrinkled pellicle is floating; and on this pellicle, motionless, is a yellow louse.
On these dry corpses, fit at most for gnawing, but certainly containing nothing to suck, the Sitaris-larvæ took up their customary position and there remained motionless as on the living insect. They obtain nothing, therefore, from the Anthophora's body; but perhaps they nibble her fleece, even as the Bird-lice nibble the birds' feathers?
Shall we manage it, among us all? I thought so. By the end of August, however, my last illusions were dispelled. Not one of us had succeeded in seeing the big black Fly perching on the dome of the mason bee. Our failure, it seems to me, can be explained thus: outside the spacious front of the Anthophora's settlement, the Anthrax is in permanent residence.
She would no doubt have spent the autumn and the winter in the Anthophora's dwelling, only leaving it in the spring following.
It therefore seems to me undeniable that the young Sitares settle on the Anthophora's body merely to make her carry them into the cells which she will soon be building.
The pellicle is the empty envelope of the Anthophora's egg; the louse is a Meloe-larva. The story of this larva becomes self-evident.
I even believe that this method may be attempted with the cells of various Bees, provided that the eggs and the honey do not differ too greatly from the Anthophora's.
It also happened, though rarely, that the series was reversed, that is to say, it began with males and ended with females. Lastly, there were a good many isolated cocoons, of one sex or the other. When the cocoon was alone and occupied the Anthophora's cell, it invariably belonged to a female. I have observed the same thing in the nests of the Mason-bee of the Sheds, but not so easily.
Lastly, about the middle of August, it tears the double bag that contains it, pierces the lid of the Anthophora's cell, enters a corridor and appears outside in quest of the other sex. I have told how, while digging in search of the Sitaris, I found two cells belonging to Meloe cicatricosus. One contained an Anthophora's egg; with this egg was a yellow Louse, the primary larva of the Meloe.
We do not see them wandering from spot to spot, exploring the Anthophora's body, seeking the part where the skin is more delicate, as they would certainly do if they were really deriving some nourishment from the juices of the Bee.
Word Of The Day