DR. JOHNSTON ON THE ACARIDK8 OF BERWICKSniRR. 301 



disperse in fear and try to escape in every direction. They 

 soon die if kept in a dry vessel. In winter Dug^s informs 

 us that they are to be found under stones, where they doubt- 

 lessly live on other acarides ; for he has seen the Gamasus 

 testudinarius devour little Trombidia. 



Goedaert had a queer notion that the Gamasi were given 

 to the humble bees for their good, — to rouse them from their 

 indolence and somnolency, and to prick them on to more ac- 

 tive industry ! He was probably one of those naturalists 

 who see a good in everything ; but Goedaert was here un- 

 questionably wrong, and the " busy bee" may still furnish 

 the moralist a true lesson for his child. — Reaumur says he is 

 in doubt whether the mites draw their nourishment from the 

 body itself of the humble-bee, as many parasites of other 

 animals are known to do ; he rather thinks there is reason to 

 believe, that they only clean, if we may so speak, the bee of 

 the honied liquor with which many parts of the body are 

 often moistened, — that they love this sweetened juice and 

 are nourished with it. What seems to him to give support 

 to this opinion is the fact that the mites are to be seen in 

 hundreds, and sometimes even in thousands, running upon 

 the combs in the nest. From these combs they get upon the 

 body of the bee, and when this flies abroad, they are carried 

 willingly upon it throughout its devious course, certain that 

 it will return at length to the nest again ! This conjecture 

 of Reaumur is refuted by the structure of the mouth of the 

 Gamasus, which proves it to be a non-suctorial insect ; nor 

 can one attentively observe a humble bee loaded with the 

 mite, lying in the dust or path-way, without a conviction 

 that it is suffering pain and weakness from its pest This 

 conviction may be supported by the following pretty anec- 

 dote told by Mr. Westwood ; to whom it was communicated 

 " by Mr. Daniel Bidder, an indefatigable, well-informed, and 

 old collector of insects, as well as a close observer of their 

 proceedings." Many years since (.Mr. W. was writing in 

 1835), when collecting in the New Forest of Hampshire, Mr. 

 Bidder " sat down on a bank to take some refreshment, the 

 sun was obscured by clouds, when presently he saw a speci- 

 men of the Apis terrestris, or humble bee, alight near him, 



x2 



