876 



AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY 



The reproduction of these flies is of the pupiparous type. When 

 the mature larva is born it is fastened in some cases to the host, 

 (Aluir, '12) and in others the female leaves the host for a short time 

 and fastens the larva to the perch to which the bats cling (Scott, 

 '17). In each case the lar\^a is pressed against the supporting object 

 to which it adheres firmly. 



Only a few species have been found in this country, for figures 

 and descriptions of these see Ferris ('16 and '24). 



Family BRAULID^ 



The Bee-Lice 



This family includes only a single genus, Braula, of which there 

 is only one well-known species, Braula cceca. This is a minute insect, 



1.5 mm. in length, 

 which is parasitic up- 

 on the honey-bee (Fig. 

 1 1 20). It is found 

 clinging to the thorax 

 of queens and drones. 

 It is wingless and also 

 lacks halteres; the 

 head is large ; the ocelli 

 are wanting; the 

 eyes are vestigial ; the 

 legs are comparatively 

 short; and the last 

 segment of the tarsi 

 is furnished with a 

 pair of comb-like ap- 

 pendages. 



Fig. 1 120. — Braula caeca. (From Starp after Ivlein- 

 ert.) 



The bee-louse was described by Reaimiur nearly two hundred 

 years ago and remained the only known species of this family till 1914. 

 when another species, Braula kohli, was described from the Belgian 

 Kongo; this species is parasitic on an African honey-bee, Apis mellifica 

 var. adamsoni. 



The affinities of this family are in doubt. Until recently Braula 

 has been supposed to be similar in its mode of development to the 

 sheep tick, and for this reason the family classed with the Pupipara. 

 But it is now known that Braula lays eggs; and the developmental 

 stages have been found in tunnels under the capping of sealed honey 

 (See "Monthly Letter" of the U. S. Bureau of Entomology, Number 

 113, September 1923). 



It is maintained by both Bomer and Bezzi that Braula should be 

 classed near the Phoridse. But Muggenburg ('92) has shown that 

 there is a ptilinum in this genus. It, therefore, does not belong to 

 the series Aschiza. 



