ng Oil-beetles, whom I now saw for the
first time elsewhere than in the Bees' fur or the interior of their
cells. I could not lose so excellent an opportunity of learning how
these larvae manage to establish themselves upon the bodies of their
foster-parents.

In the grass where, after lying down for a moment, I had caught these
lice were a few plants in blossom, of which the most abundant were
three composites: _Hedypnois polymorpha_, _Senecio gallicus_ and
_Anthemis arvensis_. Now it was on a composite, a dandelion, that
Newport seemed to remember seeing some young Oil-beetles; and my
attention therefore was first of all directed to the plants which I
have named. To my great satisfaction, nearly all the flowers of these
three plants, especially those of the camomile (_Anthemis_) were
occupied by young Oil-beetles in greater or lesser numbers. On one
head of camomile I counted forty of these tiny insects, cowering
motionless in the centre of the florets. On the other hand, I could
not discover any on the flowers of the poppy or of a wild rocket
(_Diplotaxis muralis_) which grew promiscuously among the plants
aforesaid. It seems to me, therefore, that it is only on the composite
flowers that the Meloe-larvae await the Bees' arrival.

In addition to this population encamped upon the heads of the
composites and remaining motionless, as though it had achieved its
object for the moment, I soon discovered yet another, far more
numerous, whose anxious activity betrayed a fruitless search. On the
ground, in the grass, numberless little larvae were running in a great
flutter, recalling in some respects the tumultuous disorder of an
overturned Ant-hill; others were hurriedly climbing to the tip of a
blade of grass and descending with the same haste; others again were
plunging into the downy fluff of the withered everlastings, remaining
there a moment and quickly reappearing to continue their search.
Lastly, with a little attention, I was able to convince myself that
within an area of a dozen square yards there was perhaps not a single
blade of grass which was not explored by several of these larvae.

I was evidently witnessing the recent emergence of the young
Oil-beetles from their maternal lairs. Part of them had already
settled on the groundsel- and camomile-flowers to await the arrival of
the Bees; but the majority were still wandering in search of this
provisional refuge. It was by this wandering population that I had
b