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Updated: May 9, 2025
It is in the first half of July that the Sitaris-grubs reach their full dimensions. At this period the cell usurped by the parasite contains nothing beyond a full-fed larva and, in a corner, a heap of reddish droppings. This larva is soft and white, about half an inch in length and a quarter of an inch wide at its broadest part.
Before I describe what becomes of the Sitaris-grubs on leaving the body of the Anthophoræ, I must not omit to mention one very remarkable peculiarity. All the Bees invaded by these grubs that have hitherto been observed have, without one exception, been male Anthophoræ.
But a few attempts will soon convince us that the only second which would allow the Sitaris to establish itself in the home of the Bee is the very second when the egg is laid on the surface of the honey. Let us take an Anthophora-cell full of honey and furnished with an egg and, after removing the lid, place it in a glass tube with a few Sitaris-grubs.
To confirm my conviction that the young Sitaris-grubs do not feed on the Anthophora's body, I have sometimes placed within their reach, in a glass jar, some Bees that have long been dead and are completely dried up.
It is no doubt to their precocious awakening that the males of the Osmia owe their ability to traverse with impunity the corridors in which the young Sitaris-grubs are heaped together, without having the latter fasten to their fleece; at least, I cannot otherwise explain the absence of these larvæ from the backs of the male Osmiæ, since, when we place them artificially in the presence of these Bees, they fasten on them as readily as on the Anthophoræ.
At Avignon, where I have not yet seen Sitaris humeralis, the same species of Anthophora, observed at almost the same season, while pillaging the lilac-blossom, was always free of young Sitaris-grubs; at Carpentras, on the contrary, where there is not a single Anthophora-colony without Sitares, nearly three-quarters of the specimens which I examined carried a few of these larvæ in their fleece.
On the other hand, we can easily rear Sitaris-grubs by taking Anthophora-cells not invaded by the parasites, cells in which the egg is not yet hatched. All that we have to do is to pick up one of these grubs with the moistened tip of a needle and to lay it delicately on the egg. There is then no longer the least attempt to escape.
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