We can now easily understand the use of the projecting crescent whose
two horns, by closing together, are able to take hold of a hair more
easily than the most delicate tweezers; we perceive the full value of
the tenacious adhesive provided by the anus to save the tiny creature,
at the least sign of danger, from an imminent fall; we realize lastly
the useful function that may be fulfilled by the elastic cirri of the
flanks and legs, which are an absolute and most embarrassing
superfluity when walking upon a smooth surface, but which, in the
present case, penetrate like so many probes into the thickness of the
Anthophora's down and serve as it were to anchor the Sitaris-larva in
position. The more we consider this arrangement, which seems modelled
by a blind caprice so long as the grub drags itself laboriously over a
smooth surface, the more do we marvel at the means, as effective as
they are varied, which are lavished upon this fragile creature to help
it to preserve its unstable equilibrium.
Before I describe what becomes of the Sitaris-grubs on leaving the
body of the Anthophorae, I must not omit to mention one very
remarkable peculiarity. All the Bees invaded by these grubs that have
hitherto been observed have, without one exception, been male
Anthophorae. Those whom I drew from their lurking-places were males;
those whom I caught upon the flowers were males; and, in spite of the
most active search, I failed to find a single female at liberty. The
cause of this total absence of females is easy to understand.
If we remove a few clods from the area occupied by the nests, we see
that, though all the males have already opened and abandoned their
cells, the females, on the contrary, are still enclosed in theirs, but
on the point of soon taking flight. This appearance of the males
almost a month before the emergence of the females is not peculiar to
the Anthophorae; I have observed it in many other Bees and
particularly in the Three-horned Osmia (_O. tricornis_), who inhabits
the same site as the Hairy-footed Anthophora (_A. pilipes_). The males
of the Osmia make their appearance even before those of the Anthophora
and at so early a season that the young Sitaris-larvae are perhaps not
yet aroused by the instinctive impulse which urges them to activity.
It is no doubt to their precocious awakening that the males of the
Osmia owe their ability to traverse with impunity the corridors in
which the young Sitaris-grubs are heaped together, without having the
latter fasten to their fleece; at least, I cannot otherwise explain
the absence of these larvae from the backs of the male Osmiae, since,
when we place them artificially in the presence of these Bees, they
fasten on them as readily as on the Anthophorae.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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