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Updated: June 8, 2025
Soon on the sleeper's body lies a nascent grub which feasts in all security on the luscious fare. The traitors who attack the larvae in their lethargy are three in number: an Anthrax, a Leucopsis and a microscopic dagger-wearer. For this and the Anthrax, cf. "The Life of the Fly": chapters 2 and 3.
Xerophila leucopsis, GOULD. Colluricincla cinerea, VIG. and HORSF.? Pachycephala gutturalis, VIG. and HORSF. inornata, GOULD.? pectoralis, VIG. and HORSF. rufogularis, GOULD. Artamus sordidus. personatus, GOULD. Cracticus destructor, TEMM. Gymnorhina leuconota, GOULD. Grallina melanoleuca, VIEILL. Strepera ? Campephaga humeralis, GOULD.? Graucalus melanops, VIG. and HORSF. Cinclosoma punctatum, VIG. and HORSF. castanotus, GOULD. Malurus cyaneus, VIEILL. melanotus, GOULD. leucopterus, QUOY AND GAIM. Lamberti, VIG. and HORSF. Stipiturus malachurus, LESS. Cysticola exilis?
Those two delicate spikes are incapable of chewing anything, but they may very well serve to pierce the epidermis with an aperture smaller than that made by the finest needle; and it is through this puncture that the Leucopsis sucks the juices of his prey.
My perplexity only increases when, on the return of summer, I witness for the second time the Leucopsis' repeated operations on the same cells and for the second time find a single larva in the compartments which have been bored several times over.
Others, which had also been repeatedly probed, contained spoilt remnants, but never a Leucopsis. O holy patience, give me the courage to begin again! Dispel the darkness and deliver me from doubt! I begin again. The Leucopsis-grub is familiar to me; I can recognize it, without the possibility of a mistake, in the nests of both the Chalicodoma of the Pebbles and the Chalicodoma of the Sheds.
Those of the Mason-bee of the Sheds have to be chipped away with a hammer before one can inspect their cells, which are heaped up anyhow; and they do not lend themselves anything like so well to delicate investigations, as they suffer both from the shock and the ill-treatment. And now the thing is done: it remains certain that the Leucopsis' laying is exposed to very exceptional dangers.
To-day, the frequent mistakes of the Leucopsis, whose antennae are nevertheless constantly exploring the surface, make this conclusion absolutely certain. The perforator of clay nests has, so it seems to me, delivered us from an old physiological fallacy. She would deserve studying, if for no other result than this; but her interest is far from being exhausted.
I am much indebted to them in the matter of the Leucopsis' life-history. By way of comparison with what took place under my roof, I used to observe the same scenes on the pebbles of the surrounding wastelands.
The Mason-bee's grub is therefore emptied by the Leucopsis' larva while it is in a semifluid state and deep in the torpor of the nymphosis. The last fortnight in July and the first fortnight in August are the best times to witness the repast, which I have seen going on for twelve and fourteen days.
It is as though the laying-implement could not persuade itself to die before accomplishing its mission. The insect's supreme aim is the egg; and, so long as the least spark of life remains, it makes dying efforts to lay. Leucopsis gigas exploits the nests of the Mason-bee of the Pebbles and the Mason-bee of the Sheds with equal zest.
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