not work or store up food for their progeny, but deposit their ova in the cells of their comrades. Some of these, it is well known, counterfeit the dress and general figure of their victims. To all appearance this similarity of shape and colours between the parasite and its victim is given for the purpose of deceiving the poor hard-working bee, which would otherwise revenge itself by slaying its plunderers. Some parasitic bees, however, have no resemblance to the species they impose upon; probably they live together on more friendly terms, or have some other means of disarming suspicion. Many Dipterous insects are also parasitic on bees, and wear the same dress as the species they live upon. That the dress of the victimisers is arranged with especial reference to their prey, I think is proved by what I observed at Santarem. The genera of the parasites here are not the same as in Europe; and when they counterfeit working bees, it is the peculiarly-coloured species of their own country that are imitated, and not those of any other region. The European genus Apathus, which mimics European Humble-bees, is not found in South America; but the common Bombus of Santarem, which is remarkable in being wholly of a sooty-black colour, is attended by a sooty black parasite of a widely-different genus, the Eurytis funereus. Many of the little Meliponæ have their counterfeits in small Diptera of the family Syrphidæ; and the brilliant green or blue bees of the country (Euglossa) have their imitators in parasitic bees of equally bright colours, belonging to genera unknown out of the countries where the Euglossæ are found.[1]
- ↑ These are Melissa, Mesocheira, Thalestria, &c.
