Miscellanies. 213 
were submitted together in a brasqued crucible, to an ordinary assay 
heat: the result was, iron and scoria 15°42; iron alone, 12°90. 
Then 100 parts of the ore contain 64°50 of metal, which appear- 
ed to have all the properties of steel. 
27. A Parasite of the Honey Bee,* [Apis mellifica.|—For a few 
years past, many of those people, in this vicinity, who have apiaries, 
have found that in the month of April, May and June, an unusual 
mortality has prevailed among their bees. This circumstance has led 
to a thorough investigation of the cause, by those, who have felt a 
particular interest, in the products of this valuable insect ; and the 
result has proved, that this mortality has been produced entirely by 
a parasite. . 
More than two years since, one of my neighbors, suggested to me 
his conjectures, that there was a parasite fly, that was injurious to the 
ey bee; since which.time, we have fully ascertained the fact. I 
have, a box, now before me, containing a great number of dead bees 
in which may be found the parasites, in both the pupa and the per- 
fect state. Usually the bees become sickly, and unable to fly, when 
the parasites are in the larva state; but they sometimes live till the 
perfect insect emerges from the pupa. The larva is fixed at the in- 
osculations of the dorsal segments of the abdomen of the bee, and is 
hardly discoverable by the eye unless the abdomen be dissected. 
The larva is white, nearly two lines in length, and very much resem- 
bles a small worm or maggot. The pupa is nearly the size of the 
larva, and of a reddish brown color. ‘The perfect insect is a 
non-descript, and bears very little resemblance to the [Stylops] or 
[ Xenos] or any other insect, that has been found to be a parasite of 
the bee or wasp. It is of the class Diptera of Lin.—is little larger 
than the Hessian fly, but in color and form, it is very unlike that in- 
sect. : : 
Kirby, many years since discovered that the insect (Stylops) wasa 
parasite in the black-bronze bee, (Andrena nigroenea,) in England, 
and Professor Peck, afterwards found that the (Xenos) was a para- 
* To Professor Silliman,—Dear Sir.—Having fully ascertained that we have an 
at is a Parasite of the Honey Bee [Apis mellifica,] and being unable to find 
any description of it, in any treatise on Entomology, which has fallen under my 
view, I send you the following communication, on the subject, for Ee in 
your valuable Journal of Science, &c, should you think it deserving a pla 
Yours Respectfully. 
Fayetteville, Vt., May 15, 1833. Martin Frevp. 
