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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



BRAULA C^CA— AND ITS RELATION TO 

 THE HONEY BEE. 



TO become obstructive to the dissemination of 

 false impressions and erroneous opinions, is 

 happily pardonable in scientific life, and perhaps there 

 is no greater mystery and misconception on any 

 subject than that which prevails respecting para- 

 sitic agents and their ultimate effects. 



From all ages the produce of the bee has been 

 made subservient to the wants of man, and therefore 

 its culture has been the study alike of the naturalist 

 and the peasant. It has also been observed that the 

 bee has many parasites, and that its honey and its 

 wax are in request not only by man, but by various 

 insects not truly parasitic. But with Braula only 

 we have now to do. 



The effects of the braula upon the useful opera- 

 tions of the bee have long been known, though less 

 generally understood ; its history, therefore, may be 

 better studied through that of the bee, while there 



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Fig. 69. — £7-a7ila area (ventral aspect, magnified). 



can be no doubt that when braula has been more 

 observed, it will be found that more is attributed to 

 it than it deserves, seeing the extent of ravages and 

 consequent loss to cultivators occasioned by other 

 hidden guests, while many deaths attributed to cold 

 or floral dearth are really due to food supplied in 

 substitution by the owners. 



No doubt that braula is annoying, but where it is 

 injurious, the hive is like the house when pestilent 

 with fleas, but where braula does so exist its effects 

 are but too apparent, for the restless and excited 

 state of tlie colony is such as to interfere most 

 seriously with the industrial habits of the insects and 

 so to lessen the quantity of honey produced as to 

 render the entire stock unprofitable. 



It has been represented and still is being (vide 

 Science-Gossip, December), that the bee louse 

 {Braula acca) is the parasite of the "queen" of a 

 colony, and examples so labelled and named are 

 distributed. The error is very great, as every 

 entomologist and intelligent observer well knows, 

 and the error cannot be too early corrected. If the 



attacks of braula were confined to the person of the 

 "queen," such general disorder in the hive would 

 not prevail, while the remedy would be easy, it being 

 only the substitution of another queen, to whom the 

 bees would readily pay their homage. Such happy 

 termination of the evil, however, is not so easy, for 

 the removal of any particular bee, or bees, other than 

 those annoyed, is insufficient to restore the order of 

 the hive, for the insects are indiscriminately attacked, 

 irrespective of function, or sex. The parasite of the 

 " queen," therefore, can never be accepted. There 

 may be no evidence that braula is parasitic upon 

 other families of the Hymenoptera, yet it is not 

 improbable that, under certain circumstances, it may 

 have been present in other conditions unobserved or 

 unrecognised, as is known to be the case with many 

 of the parasitica, otherwise their very occasional 

 appearance in the hives of bee masters is scarcely to 

 be explained. But other reasons readily present 

 themselves. It rarely happens that a single bee has 

 scores upon its body, never when a healthful state 

 prevails, while the deportment of the insect outside 



Fig. 70. — Rudimentary wing 

 of Braula (magnified). 



Fig. 71. — Pulvillus of Braula 



(magnified). 



its dwelling, the length and quantity of its hair, the 

 affinity, in respect of colour, the close attach- 

 ment of the parasite, and other reasons, are quite 

 sufficient to explain why braula may be unperceived, 

 even if present. 



According to palseontological researches, it seems, 

 pretty safe to infer that braula may have had a very 

 ancient origin. The Hymenoptera have been found 

 to have existed even as far back as the Mesozoic age, 

 towards the close of which epoch the bee is known 

 to have lived. But because its remains were first 

 discovered in those particular deposits, it is not 

 necessary to suppose that the insect was not in 

 existence, even at a much earlier period ; for as the 

 flora of the ancient world developed, correlated 

 insects undoubtedly appeared. And because we 

 have no reason to believe that the plan of creation 

 has differed in any way since the first, so we are 

 justified in assuming that all those conditions neces- 

 sary for the retention of the bee in its place in the 

 world were provided, and that, therefore, its antago- 

 nists were not absent. Nor is it at all improbable 

 that even braula may have passed unrecognised 



