and thorax of a female
Stylops (Fig. 39_a_, position of the female of Stylops, seen in profile
in the abdomen of the bee; Fig. 39_b_, the female seen from above. The
head and thorax are soldered into a single flattened mass, the baggy
hind-body being greatly enlarged like that of the gravid female of the
white ant, and consisting of nine segments).

[Illustration: 39. Female Stylops.]

On carefully drawing out the whole body (Pl. 1, Fig. 6, as seen from
above, and showing the alimentary canal ending in a blind sac; Fig.
6_a_, side view), which is very extensible, soft and baggy, and
examining it under a high power of the microscope, we saw multitudes, at
least several hundred, of very minute larvae, like particles of dust to
the naked eye, issuing in every direction from the body of the parent
now torn open in places, though most of them made their exit through an
opening on the under side of the head-thorax. The Stylops, being hatched
while still in the body of the parent, is, therefore viviparous. She
probably never lays eggs.

On the last of April, when the Mezereon was in blossom, I caught the
singular looking male (Stylops Childreni, Fig. 40; a, side view; it is
about one-fourth of an inch long), which was as unlike its partner as
possible. I laid it under a tumbler, when the delicate insect flew and
tumbled about till it died of exhaustion in a few hours.

It appears, then, that the larvae are hatched during the middle or last
of June from eggs fertilized in April. The larvae then crawl out upon the
body of the bee, on which they are transported to the nest, where they
enter, according to Peck's observations, the body of the larva, on whose
fatty parts they feed. Previous to changing to a pupa the larva lives
with its head turned towards that of its host, but before assuming the
perfect state (which they do in the late summer or autumn) it must
reverse its position. The female protrudes the front part of her body
between the segments of the abdomen of her host, as represented in our
figure. This change, Newport thinks, takes place after the bee-host has
undergone its metamorphoses, though the bee does not leave her earthen
cells until the following spring. Though the male Stylops deserts his
host, his wingless partner is imprisoned during her whole life within
her host, and dies immediately after giving birth to her myriad (for
Newport thinks she produces over two thousand) offspring.

[Illustration: 40. Male