The larva is nearly 2 millimetres long.[8] Coming out of a good-sized egg, it is endowed with greater vigour than the larvae of the Sitares and Oil-beetles. The head is large, rounded, slightly wider than the prothorax and of a rather brighter red. Mandibles powerful, sharp, curved, with the ends crossing, of the same colour as the head, darker at the tips. Eyes black, prominent, globular, very distinct. Antennae fairly long, with three joints, the last thinner and pointed. Palpi very much pronounced. [Footnote 8: .078 inch.--_Translator's Note_.] The first thoracic segment has very nearly the same diameter as the head and is much longer than those which come after. It forms a sort of cuirass equal in length to almost three abdominal segments. It is squared off in front in a straight line and is rounded at the sides and at the back. Its colour is bright red. The second ring is hardly a third as long as the first. It is also red, but a little browner. The third is dark brown, with a touch of green to it. This tint is repeated throughout the abdomen, so that in the matter of colouring the creature is divided into two sections: the front, which is a fairly bright red, includes the head and the first two thoracic segments; the second, which is a greenish brown, includes the third thoracic segment and the nine abdominal rings. The three pairs of legs are pale red, strong and long, considering the creature's smallness. They end in a single long, sharp claw. The abdomen has nine segments, all of an olive brown. The membranous spaces which connect them are white, so that, from the second thoracic ring downwards, the tiny creature is alternatively ringed with white and olive brown. All the brown rings bristle with short, sparse hairs. The anal segment, which is narrower than the rest, bears at the tip two long cirri, very fine, slightly waved and almost as long as the whole abdomen. This description enables us to picture a sturdy little creature, capable of biting lustily with its mandibles, exploring the country with its big eyes and moving about with six strong harpoons as a support. We no longer have to do with the puny louse of the Oil-beetle, which lies in ambush on a cichoriaceous blossom in order to slip into the fleece of a harvesting Bee; nor with the black atom of the Sitaris, which swarms in a heap on the spot where it is hatched, at the Anthophora's door. I see the young Mylabris striding eagerly up and down the glass tube in which it was born. What is it seeking? What does it want? I give it a Bee, a Halictus,[9] to see if it will settle on the insect, as the Sitares and Oil-beetles would not fail to do. My offer is scorned. It is not a winged conveyance that my prisoners require. [Footnote 9: Cf. _Bramble-bees and Others_: chaps. xii. to xiv.--_Translator's Note_.]