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The meloidal parasite of the Osmiæ, therefore, is recognized. We have still to make the acquaintance of the primary larva, which gets itself carried by the Osmia into the cell full of honey, and the tertiary larva, the one which, at a given moment, must be found contained in the pseudochrysalis, a larva which will be succeeded by the nymph.
But, no, yes, it is that; that's just what it is!" Then, suddenly turning to Émile, who was rather surprised by this soliloquy: "My boy," I said, "you have had a magnificent find. It's a pseudochrysalis of the Meloidæ. It's a document of incalculable value; you've struck a fresh vein in the extraordinary records of these creatures. Let us look at it closely and at once."
The horny integuments of the pseudochrysalis have become detached from their contents, all of a piece, without a break, just as happened the year before with the skin of the secondary larva; and they thus form a fresh vesicular envelope, free from any adhesion to the contents and itself enclosed in the pouch formed of the secondary larva's skin.
This last date is best-suited to explain the presence of the parasitic larva and its pseudochrysalis in the Tachytes' burrows from July onwards. Moreover, the Cerocoma is very abundant in the neighbourhood of the sand-heaps haunted by the Tachytes, while the Mylabris does not occur there.
The most nearly complete instances that I have seen furnishes me with the following data: the pseudochrysalis is very closely enveloped in the skin of the secondary larva, a skin consisting of fine transparent pellicle, without any rent whatever. This is the pouch of the Sitaris, save that it lies in immediate contact with the body enclosed.
The thing was taken from the box, dusted by blowing on it and carefully examined. I really had before my eyes the pseudochrysalis of some Meloid. Its shape was unfamiliar to me. No matter: I was an old hand and could not mistake its source.
The tertiary larva reproduces almost exactly the peculiarities of the second; it is enclosed, in the Sitares and probably also the Zonites, in a double vesicular envelope formed of the skin of the secondary larva and the slough of the pseudochrysalis.
The larger of the two larvæ of the 25th of June, placed in a test-tube with what remained of its provisions, assumed a new form during the first week of the following month. Its skin split along the front dorsal half and, after being pushed half back, left partly uncovered a pseudochrysalis bearing the closest analogy with that of the Sitares.
A pair of stigmata on the mesothorax, near the line of junction with the prothorax; a stigma on either side of the first eight abdominal segments; in all nine pairs of stigmata, distributed like those of the pseudochrysalis. These stigmata are small, tinged with red and rather difficult to distinguish.
Next comes the pseudochrysalis, horny, currant-red, cylindrical, cone-shaped at both ends, slightly convex on the dorsal surface and concave on the ventral surface. It is covered with delicate, prominent spots, sprinkled very close together; it takes a lens to show them. It is 1 centimetre long and 4 millimetres wide.
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