CHAPTER III. 



THE P-IRASITES OF THE HONEY BEE. 



Very few bee-keepers are probabl}'' aware how many insect 

 parasites infest the Honey bee. In our own literature we liear 

 almost nothing of this subject, but in Europe much has been 

 written on bee parasites. From Dr. Edward Assmuss' little 

 work on the "Parasites of the Honey Bee," we glean some of 

 the facts now presented, and which cannot fail to interest the 

 general reader as well as the owner of bees. 



The study of the habits of animal parasites has of late gained 

 much attention among naturalists, and both the honey and wild 

 bees afford good examples of the singular relation between the 

 host and the parasites which live upon it. Among insects gen- 

 erally, there are certain species which devour the contents of 

 the egg of the victim. Others, and this is the most common 

 mode of parasitism, attack the insect in its larva state; others, 

 in the pupa state, and still others in the perfect, or imago state. 

 Dr. Leidy has shown that the wood-devouring species of beetle, 

 Passalus cornutus, and some Myriopods, or "thousand legs," 

 are, in some cases, tenanted by myriads of microscopic plants 

 and worms which luxuriate in the alimentary canal, while the 

 "caterpillar-fungus" attacks sickly caterpillars, filling out their 

 bodies, and sending out shoots into the air, so that the insect 

 looks as if transformed into a vegetable. 



The Ichneumon flies, of which there are undoubtedly several 

 thousand species in this country, are the most common insect 

 parasites. Next to these are the different species of Tachlna 

 and its allied genera. These, like Ichneumons, live in the bodies 

 of their hostsf consuming the fatty parts, and finishing their 



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