Tired of all these fruitless attempts, I ended where I ought to have begun: I went to Carpentras. But it was too late: the Anthophora had finished her work; and I did not succeed in seeing anything new. During the course of the year I learnt from Leon Dufour,[2] to whom I had spoken of the Sitares, that the tiny creature which he had found on the Andrenae[3] and described under the generic name of Triungulinus, was recognized later by Newport[4] as the larva of a Meloe, or Oil-beetle. Now it so happened that I had found a few Oil-beetles in the cells of the same Anthophora that nourishes the Sitares. Could there be a similarity of habits between the two kinds of insects? This idea threw a sudden light for me upon the subject; but I had plenty of time in which to mature my plans: I had another year to wait. [Footnote 2: Jean Marie Leon Dufour (1780-1865), an army surgeon who served with distinction in several campaigns, and subsequently practised as a doctor in the Landes, where he attained great eminence as a naturalist. Fabre often refers to him as the Wizard of the Landes. Cf. _The Life of the Spider_, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. i.; and _The Life of the Fly_: chap. i.--_Translator's Note_.] [Footnote 3: A genus of Burrowing Bee, the most numerous in species among the British Bees.--_Translator's Note_.] [Footnote 4: George Newport (1803-1854), an English surgeon and naturalist, president of the Entomological Society from 1844 to 1845 and an expert in insect anatomy.--_Translator's Note_.] When April came, my Sitaris-larvae began, as usual, to bestir themselves. The first Bee to appear, an Osmia, is dropped alive into a glass jar containing a few of these larvae; and after a lapse of some fifteen minutes I inspect them through the pocket-lens. Five Sitares are embedded in the fleece of the thorax. It is done, the problem's solved! The larvae of the Sitares, like those of the Oil-beetles, cling like grim death to the fleece of their generous host and make him carry them into the cell. Ten times over I repeat the experiment with the various Bees that come to plunder the lilac flowering outside my window and in particular with male Anthophorae; the result is still the same: the larvae embed themselves in the hair of the Bees' thorax. But after so many disappointments one becomes distrustful and it is better to go and observe the facts upon the spot; besides, the Easter holidays fall very conveniently and afford me the leisure for my observations.