To do this, they would require mouth-parts endowed with a certain
strength and, in particular, horny and sturdy jaws, whereas their jaws
are so fine that a microscopic examination failed to show them to me.
The larvae, it is true, are provided with powerful mandibles; but
these finely-pointed mandibles, with their backward curve, though
excellent for tugging at food and tearing it to pieces, are useless
for grinding it or gnawing it. Lastly, we have a final proof of the
passive condition of the Sitaris-larvae on the body of the Anthophorae
in the fact that the Bees do not appear to be in any way incommoded by
their presence, since we do not see them trying to rid themselves of
the grubs. Some Anthophorae which were free from these grubs and some
others which were carrying five or six upon their bodies were placed
separately in glass jars. When the first disturbance resulting from
their captivity was appeased, I could see nothing peculiar about those
occupied by the young Sitares. And, if all these arguments were not
sufficient, I might add that a creature which has already been able to
spend seven months without food and which in a few days' time will
proceed to drink a highly-flavoured fluid would be guilty of a
singular inconsistency if it were to start nibbling the dry fleece of
a Bee. It therefore seems to me undeniable that the young Sitares
settle on the Anthophora's body merely to make her carry them into the
cells which she will soon be building.
But until then the future parasites must hold tight to the fleece of
their hostess, despite her rapid evolutions among the flowers, despite
her rubbing against the walls of the galleries when she enters to take
shelter and, above all, despite the brushing which she must often give
herself with her feet to dust herself and keep spick and span. Hence
no doubt the need for that curious apparatus which no standing or
moving upon ordinary surfaces could explain, as was said above, when
we were wondering what the shifting, swaying, dangerous body might be
on which the larva would have to establish itself later. This body is
a hair of a Bee who makes a thousand rapid journeys, now diving into
her narrow galleries, now forcing her way down the tight throat of a
corolla, and who never rests except to brush herself with her feet and
remove the specks of dust collected by the down which covers her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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