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The Sitaris-larva, as we shall see, has to feed upon the honey in the cell; the Anthophora-larva which would proceed from that egg would require the same food; but the portion is too small for two; so, quick, a bite at the egg and the difficulty will be removed. The story of these facts calls for no comment.
Let us tear the fine gauze bag enclosing the organism which has just come into being and direct our investigation to this third form of the Sitaris-larva. It is an inert, segmented body, with an oval outline, a horny consistency, just like that of pupæ and chrysalids, and a bright-yellow colour, which we can best describe by likening it to that of a lemon-drop.
For that matter, it is easy to convince ourselves that the egg combines with the function of a life-buoy that of the first ration. I have laid on the surface of the honey in a cell a tiny strip of paper, of the same dimensions as the egg; and on this raft I have placed a Sitaris-larva. Despite every care, my attempts, many times repeated, always failed.
If in its first form the Sitaris-larva is organized for action, to obtain possession of the coveted cell, in its second form it is organized solely to digest the provisions acquired. Let us take a glance at its internal structure and in particular at its digestive apparatus.
The Anthophora's egg therefore is absolutely necessary to the Sitaris-larva, not merely as a boat, but also as its first nourishment. This is the whole secret, for lack of knowing which I had hitherto failed in my attempts to rear the larvæ hatched in my glass jars. At the end of a week, the egg, drained by the parasite, is nothing but a dry skin. The first meal is finished.
The Sitaris-larva, whose dimensions have almost doubled, now splits open along the back; and through a slit which comprises the head and the three thoracic segments a white corpusculum, the second form of this singular organism, escapes to fall on the surface of the honey, while the abandoned slough remains clinging to the raft which has hitherto safeguarded and fed the larva.
Even the little that we have just learnt shows us that the young Sitaris-larva is not called upon to move on an ordinary surface.
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