30 REV. H. HIGGINS ON DEATH OF COMMON HIVE BEE. 



March, merely from the circumstance that some one remarked 

 about that time that there was no noise in the hive. They might 

 have died earlier ; but there were certainly live bees in the hive in 

 January. I understand there was an appearance of mould on 

 some of the combs. There was ample ventilation, I think ; indeed, 

 as the bees were suspended, they had more air than through the 

 summer when placed on a stand." 



When the occurrence was first made known to me, I suggested 

 that the bees might probably have died from the growth of a 

 fungus, and requested some of the dead bees might be sent for ex- 

 amination. They were transmitted to me in a very dry state ; and a 

 careful inspection with a lens aiforded no indications of vegetable 

 growth. I then broke up a specimen, and examined the portions 

 under a compound microscope, using a JSTachet No. 4. The head 

 and thorax were clean ; but on a portion of the sternum were 

 innumerable very minute, linear, slightly curved bodies, showing 

 the well-known oscillatory or swarming motion. Notwithstand- 

 ing the agreement of these minute bodies with the characters of 

 the genus of Bacterium of the Vibrionia, I regarded them as sper- 

 matia, having frequently seen others undistinguishable from them 

 under circumstances inconsistent with the presence of ConfervcB^ 

 as in the interior of the immature peridia and sporangia of 

 Eungals. 



In the specimen first examined there were no other indications of 

 the growth of any parasite ; but from the interior of the abdomen 

 of a second bee I obtained an abundance of well-defined globular 

 bodies resembling the spores of a fungus, varying in size from 

 •00016 to •00012 in. Three out of four specimens subsequently 

 examined contained similar spores within the abdomen. No traces 

 of a mycelium were visible ; the plants had come to maturity, 

 fruited, and withered away, leaving only the spores. 



The chief question then remaining to be solved was as to the 

 time when the spores were developed ; whether before or after the 

 death of the bees. In order, if possible, to determine this, I 

 placed four of the dead bees in circumstances favourable for the 

 germination of the spores, and in about ten days I submitted them 

 again to examination. They were covered with mould, consisting 

 chiefly of a species of Mucor, and one also of Botrytis or Botryo- 

 sporium. These fungi were clearly extraneous, covering indiffer- 

 ently all parts of the insects, and spreading on the wood on which 

 they were lying. On the abdomen of all the specimens, and on 

 the clypeus of one of them, grew a fungus wholly "unlike the sur- 



