reature begin by greedily
drinking the juices which the torn wrapper of the egg allows to
escape; and for several days it may be observed, at one time
motionless on this envelope, in which it rummages at intervals with
its head, at others running over it from end to end to rip it open
still wider and to cause a little of the juices, which become daily
less abundant, to trickle from it; but we never catch it imbibing the
honey which surrounds it on every side.

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. The larva, placed in a paper boat in the centre of the
mass of honey, behaves as in the earlier experiments. Not finding what
suits it, it tries to escape and perishes in the sticky toils as soon
as it leaves the strip of paper, which it soon does.

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. After
exploring the egg to find its way about, the larva rips it open and
for several days does not stir from the spot. Henceforth its
development takes place unhindered, provided that the cell be
protected from too rapid evaporation, which would dry up the honey and
render it unfit for the grub's food. 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 larvae
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 t