e Oil-beetle's batch of eggs is
prodigious. Prodigious too is that of the Sitaris, who is exposed to
similar misadventures.

If, with her thirty or forty eggs, the Mylabris had to run the same
risks, perhaps not one larva would reach the desired goal. For so
strictly limited a family a safer method is needed. The young larva
must not get itself carried to the game-basket, or more probably to
the honey-pot, at the risk of never reaching it; it must travel on its
own legs. Allowing myself to be guided by the logic of things, I shall
therefore complete the story of the Twelve-spotted Mylabris as
follows.

The mother lays her eggs underground near the spots frequented by the
foster-mothers. The recently-hatched young grubs leave their lodgings
in September and travel within a restricted radius in search of
burrows containing food. The little creature's sturdy legs allow of
these underground investigations. The mandibles, which are just as
strong, necessarily play their part. The parasite, on forcing its way
into the food-pit, finds itself faced with either the egg or the young
larva of the Bee. These are competitors, whom it is important to get
rid of as quickly as possible. The hooks of the mandibles now come
into play, tearing the egg or the defenceless grub. After this act of
brigandage, which may be compared with that of the primary larva of
the Sitaris ripping open and drinking the contents of the Anthophora's
egg, the Meloid, now the sole possessor of the victuals, doffs its
battle array and becomes the pot-bellied grub, the consumer of the
property so brutally acquired. These are merely suspicions on my part,
nothing more. Direct observation will, I believe, confirm them, so
close is their connection with the known facts.

Two Zonites, both visitors of the eryngo-heads during the heats of
summer, are among the Meloidae of my part of the country. They are
_Zonitis mutica_ and _Z. praeusta_. I have spoken of the first in
another volume;[10] I have mentioned its pseudochrysalis found in the
cells of two Osmiae, namely, the Three-pronged Osmia, which piles its
cells in a dry bramble-stem, and the Three-horned Osmia and also
Latreille's Osmia, both of which exploit the nests of the Chalicodoma
of the Sheds. The second Zonitis is to-day adding its quota of
evidence to a story which is still very incomplete. I have obtained
the Burnt Zonitis, in the first place, from the cotton pouches of
_Anthidium scapulare_, who, lik