Nov 1, 1S69.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



2C3 



Bees.— "D.D.B., Cantab.," need be under no fear 

 about the drones produced by his hybridized (?) 

 Ligurian ; as, acording to the law of Parthenogenesis, 

 the drones will be pure Ligurians, although the 

 workers will be mixed ; that is. some will be black, 

 others coloured. I have kept Ligurian bees since 



1867, and a friend of mine since 1865, and, from my 

 own and his experience, T have great doubts as to 

 the Ligurian being a different species. I think it 

 must be only a variety, and one reason for thinking 

 so is, that, when allowed to swarm naturally, the 

 young queens very frequently, if not always, become 

 crossed with black drones, even when Ligurian 

 drones exist in the immediate vicinity in great num- 

 bers; and it is only with great difficulty, and by arti- 

 ficial means, that the species, or variety, whichever it 

 may be, can be kept pure in the neighbourhood of 

 black hives. The hybridized (?) queens are quite 

 as prolific as the pure ones, and so are their off- 

 spring:. Now, it is well known that undoubted 

 hybrids (such as the mule) are incapable of re- 

 production. Again, this year, many young queens, 

 produced iii the natural way by a pure Ligurian 

 queen, have been quite black, without the charac- 

 teristic vermilion stripes, although every worker, 

 observed in the hive, was marked. There are great 

 variations as to beauty of colouring in different 

 Ligurian bees, both queens, workers, and drones ; 

 I have also remarked more or less of colouring on 

 many of the so-called black bees. I should be very 

 glad_ if the question of Ligurians being a distinct 

 species, or_ only a variety, might be thoroughly 

 discussed in your columns. An account of the 

 success or otherwise of those who have attempted 

 to propagate Ligurians, would, I have no doubt, be 

 very acceptable to many readers of Science- 

 Gossip. To show the difficulty of keeping Ligurians 

 pure, I may say that my friend above mentioned, in 

 1S66, raised 7 queens, all of which were hybridized(?); 

 in 1867, 11, of which 7 were purely impregnated; in 



1868, S, only 2 pure; in_ 1S69, 1], of which 2 only 

 again were pure. {1 may just state that he resides in 

 a first-rate honey-producing district, and, with the 

 exception of two or three hives kept by the clergy- 

 man, who lives_ a field or two off, there are no bees 

 kept within a circle of about a mile. Of course there 

 might be escaped bees established in the woods 

 near. In 1868 I believe he had no bees but pure or 

 hybridized Ligurians, and I think where natural 

 swarming was permitted, every young queen has 

 been hybridized (?). My own experience coincides : 

 but as I am surrounded by black bees, my case is 

 perhaps not a fair one. — F. George, Kirton in 

 Lindsey. 



Cats and Starfish.— To those who may not be 

 so successful as "A. Y.'s" neighbour in inflicting 

 capital punishment on intruding cats, by strewing 

 their garden with pieces of starfish, the following 

 may reveal the probable cause of failure ; and may 

 serve as a word of warning to those who collect these 

 curious creatures for other purposes than to destroy 

 their neighbours' cats : — In August I collected some 

 half-dozen starfishes — two or three of them being the 

 common Five-finger Star. Intending to preserve 

 them, I spread them, without any preservative, on 

 a board, and laid them in the sun. They had lain 

 but a day, when I had to go home ; so I packed them 

 up, partly dried as they were. When I got home, I 

 put them in my bedroom, so that nothing might befall 

 them. Experience teaches. Instead of the cat being 

 scared by them, in the morning, the first chance she 

 got of the door open, she scented them out, and made I 



her breakfast of a ray or two from at least the half 

 of them— the best ones of course. She immediately 

 showed symptoms of being poisoned, vomiting 

 badly. Such havoc had been made among my speci- 

 mens, I threw them on the dunghill, where another 

 cat traced them, and was soon seized in the same 

 way as the first. They seemed little or nothing the 

 worse after getting it all fairly oil' their stomachs — 

 J. Dimlop. 



Bees Deserting. — Can any of your corre- 

 spondents give me information as to certain 

 casualties which have happened to our bees ? We 

 have kept bees three years ; our bee-house holds eight 

 hives, and we have, until this season, been success- 

 ful. About the end of June this year we had five 

 swarms ; all were hived well ; but they, with one ex- 

 ception, deserted the hives altogether, some after two 

 or three days, and another after working in the hive 

 about fourteen days, and making several nice pieces 

 of honeycomb ; where they went to we could not 

 ascertain. The hives we use are Pettitt's Collateral 

 Hive and Neighbour's Improved Cottage Hive, all 

 perfectly sweet and clean. What I want to know 

 is, whether the circumstance has happened in other 

 quarters, and if so, what precaution should be taken 

 against its future occurrence ? The only swarm that 

 remained was the Ligurian bee, and they have not 

 half filled the hive with honeycomb ; my neighbour's 

 bees also have scarcely any honey this year. — Wm. 

 Balcldn. 



Parasitical Diptera in Aphides.— About the 

 beginning of August some sweet peas in my garden 

 were covered with fine plump aphides of the usual 

 green colour. Soou a change took place, as by 

 magic. They became dry and brittle, and fixed to 

 their places, but had not in anywise shrunk in form 

 or size. They had a ghastly look. On opening 

 them, a yellow maggot was seen quite filling the 

 abdomen. 1 placed some in a pillbox, and on open- 

 ing it after a while, there was a hole in each aphis, 

 and a lively lot of two-winged flies, of small size, were 

 running about. Can any of your correspondents say 

 if the matter has been observed or described before, 

 and oblige—/. B. Keene ? 



Cleaning Shells— Has Owen T. Williams tried 

 rubbing them, first with a rag dipped in diluted 

 nitric acid, and afterwards with wet powdered 

 pumice-stone on a piece of chamois-leather, finishing 

 oft' with rottenstone ? — A. G. 



Pkeventive for Whooping-Cough.— In your 

 July number, your correspondent " C. E. F., Bed- 

 land, Bristol," gives an account of a Sussex recipe 

 for whooping-cough, by placing some of the hair 

 from the cross on a donkey's back between bread- 

 and-butter. Perhaps it will be further interesting 

 to state a remedy far more efficacious, in use in some 

 parts of Dorset, where infants and young children 

 are placed on the cross of a donkey's back to have 

 their first ride. This is considered to be a preven- 

 tive to their ever getting the complaint. — H. N. 



Cure for Toothache. — In the same locality as 

 mentioned above a very singular cure for toothache 

 was once, to my own knowledge, practised. It con- 

 sisted of wearing round the neck, in a linen bag, 

 one fore and one hinder claw of the Mole [Talpa 

 Europcea). The superstition was further heightened 

 by the necessity of the claws of the female mole 

 being used for males, and the reverse for females. — 

 H.N. 



