. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. In 1858 the real histor}- of the Boinbylius was discovered by the veteran Leon Durour, who, in the spring, found various exuvix of tlio pupa of A. major sticking out of the ground, together with the newly-hatched insect, in places much frequented by various Andn-iiiiice, especially Coltelcs hirttt, and who succeeded in the autumn, bv digging on the spot, to find the larva "au milieu des deblais, ou gisaient par-ci par-la des coques de Colletes" (Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 3rd ser., tonr. vi., p. 505, pi. 13, fig. iii, an
. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. In 1858 the real histor}- of the Boinbylius was discovered by the veteran Leon Durour, who, in the spring, found various exuvix of tlio pupa of A. major sticking out of the ground, together with the newly-hatched insect, in places much frequented by various Andn-iiiiice, especially Coltelcs hirttt, and who succeeded in the autumn, bv digging on the spot, to find the larva "au milieu des deblais, ou gisaient par-ci par-la des coques de Colletes" (Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 3rd ser., tonr. vi., p. 505, pi. 13, fig. iii, and details). The larva is elongated, apod and Heshy, and of a white color. The preceding observa- tions clearly prove that the larv;c of the Bombylii are parasites in the nests of other insects, in the manner of the cuckoo among birds. * * * This last statement of Prof. Westwood is, however, not justified by Dufour's ob- servations. On the contrary, Dufour e.\- pressly states that he did not observe upon what the larva fed ; the inference which he draws is based upon the analogy of Anthrax *'ix\A he inferred that it was upon the larvx of Colletes that the grub fed— [Fig. quite a different thing from being a cuckoo in the nest and feeding only upon the pollen. There is in Du- four's paper no evidence to prove that the Boinbylius larva was found in the co- coons, or even in the cells, of the bee; he states, in fact, that he failed to find it there, but found it amid the clear-, SvsTcKCHus oREAs: jngs ((it'blais) which he had pupa (.ifler Riley). ^ made in digging out the nest. Prof. Westwood himself found num- bers of Boinbylius medius flying in asso- ciation with a species of Andrena in the unpaved Forum Triangulare of Pompeii, and also at the same spot the pupal um of the fly protruding from the ground, which is presumptive evidence of the correctness of his conclusion. Dr. Packard (" Ouide," etc., p. 397) states that " a species [of Bombylius\ is
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