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 Stylops.] Xenos Peckii, an allied insect, was discovered by Dr. Peck to be parasitic in the body of wasps, and there are now known to be several species of this small but curious family, Stylopidae, which are known to live parasitically on the bodies of our wild bees and wasps. The presence of these parasites finally exhausts the host, so that the sterile female bee dies prematurely. As in the higher animals, bees are afflicted with parasitic worms which induce disease and sometimes death. The well-known hair worm, Gordius, is an insect parasite. The adult form is about the size of a slender knitting needle, and is seen in moist soil and in pools. It lays, according to Dr. Leidy, "millions of eggs connected together in long cords." The microscopical, tadpole-shaped young penetrate into the bodies of insects frequenting damp localities. Fairly ensconced within the body of their unsuspecting host, they luxuriate on its fatty tissues, and pass through their metamorphoses into the adult form, when they desert their living house and take to the water to lay their eggs. In Europe, Siebold has described Gordius subbifurcus, which infests the drones of the Honey bee, and also other insects. Professor Siebold has also described Mermis albicans, which is a similar kind of hair worm, from two to five inches long, and whitish in color. This worm is also found, strangely enough, only in the drones, though it is the workers which frequent watery places to appease their thirst. [Illustration: 41. Bee fungus.]