1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



379 



BLISTER - BEETLE L.ARV^ ATTACK- 

 ING BEES. 



DESCRIBED AND DRAWN BY PROF. COOK. 



fNCLOSED I send you a tew insects that infest 

 the bees about this time of the year. I have 

 — found as many as seven on one bee, but mostly 

 not more than one. I have never found them on 

 queens or drones, and have therefore concluded 

 that they come from the Howers when the bees are 

 at work, though I have never found any on the 

 flowers, after diligent search. If you can inform 

 me in regard to them, you will greatly oblige. 

 Fall Brook, Cal., May 1, 1883. J. P. M. Kainbow. 



Answer, by Prof. Cook : — 



The insects (Fig. 1) from J. P. M. Kainbow, Fall 

 Brook, Cal., are the larvfe of some species of blister 

 beetle, possibly of Meloc harharus, Lcc, -which is a 

 common species in California. These blister beetles 

 are quite curious and interesting. The famous 

 Spanish fl3', which is commercially of so much*im- 

 portance, and which, when dried, forms the cantha- 

 rides of the shops, belongs to this family. We have 

 several species of these blister beetles, all of which 

 are as capable of producing blisters as are the green 

 flies of Spain. Some of our species are very destruc- 

 tive, and when common do great damage. The old 

 potato beetle, Epicauta vitatta, used to be much 

 dreaded in Ohio. I have seen our asters fairly cov- 

 ered with E. atrata, which is equally destructive to 

 rape. These beetles have very soft bodies and long 

 necks. Some of the species, those of the genera 3/('!oc 

 (Fig. 2), and Hornia, have very short wings. I often 

 receive specimens of Mcloc angustici)Uii<, which is 

 common in allot the Northern States, and is readily 

 distinguished, especially if a female, by the very 

 short wings and the enormous abdomen, which fair- 

 ly drags with its weight of eggs. 



Meloe, female, showing: sliort 

 elytra, or wing-covers, anil 

 large abdomen. 



Triungulin, or first lar\-rt, 

 tlie one eariied by bee to 

 liire. Length, 2 ni. ni. 



But the Strangest feature of these curious insects, 

 and the one which more directly interests bee-keep- 

 ers, is connected with the habits and transformations 

 of the immature Insects, or larvte. These alone 

 among l)eetles are, in a manner, parasitic. As Mr. 

 Kainbow suggests, the larvfe (Fig. 1), when they es- 

 cape from the eggs, thousands of which are depos- 

 ited in the earth by each female, at once crawl up 

 on some flowering plant, like the comixmitiv, and as 

 these latter are visited by bees, the active larvsv 

 crawl upon the legs and bodies of the bees, and so 

 are borne off to the hives. Seven of these, as seen 



by Mr. R. on one bee, is a serious burden, and must 

 of ten overcome the bees. But this is not all. The 

 larvffi leave the bees in the hives, and take to an 

 egg diet, which they vary by eating honey, jelly, 

 and pollen. In this way they become a serious in- 

 jury to the bees. As neither the drones nor the 

 queens visit the flowers, these vesicant larvtx; will be 

 found on the workers only. 



The other curious feature of these insects is their 

 anomalous transformations, which were styled by 

 M. Fabre, hypermetamorphosis. In most insects 

 the metamorphosis is like that of our bees. We 

 first have the egg, then the larva, then the pupa, and 

 last the imago, or winged insect. In these blister 

 beetles, we have the egg, then a degraded form, the 

 one carried by the bees from the flowers, which is 

 known as the triungulin (Fig. 1), then the second 

 larval form, which has nearly the same shape as be- 

 fore, but the legs are much shorter, and now it is 

 feeding on eggs, and the other good things of the 

 hive. The next larval form is called pseudopupa, as 

 it looks some like a pupa as it rests in the mutilated 

 skin of the previous stage. The next stage is much 

 like the usual beetle larvae, or grubs, and then we 

 have the pupa, and last the imago. Surely such a 

 long- development is worthy of along name, and why 

 not hypermetamorphosis? Some of the larvoe feed 

 on the eggs, etc., of some of the wild bees, and oth- 

 ers, as shown by Prof. C. V. Kiley, in a most excel- 

 lent paper on these insects, feed on the eggs of the 

 Rocky-Mountain locust. 



That any of the larviE feed on the roots of grass, 

 as stated by Harris Packard and many others, is 

 very doubtful. A. J. Cook. 



Lansing, Mich., July, 1883. 



^VHICH BEES GO AVITH THE fU AKOT, 

 IN NATURAL. SWARMIIVa ! 



Ql BEING an account, lately, that a prime, or first 

 ^i« swarm of bees, is composed of all the old bees 

 and the old queen, given in one of our bee 

 journals, led me to think that perhaps the swarming 

 of bees is not fully understood. If all bees in the 

 land were alloweil to swarm naturally, the knowl- 

 edge of just which bees go with the swarm would be 

 of little importance, save from a scientific point of 

 view; but when wo realizA' that the majority of our 

 li2e-keepers make their swarms artiflcially, then we 

 see the importance of a practical knowledge of how 

 swarming is conducted. The Creator of all things 

 pronounced his work good, and thus we see that the 

 natural swarming of bees is a sure and safe way of 

 Increase. Many have been the plans devised to 

 make excellent artificial swarms, but I have yet to 

 hear the claim made, that such artificial swarms are 

 superior to natural ones, while many do believe that 

 the natural ones work Avith more energy, and to a 

 better advantage, than the artificial, myself being 

 one of that number. Thus it will be seen, that in 

 making artificial swarms we should copy natural 

 swarming as far as possible, in order to have our 

 swarms of the highest type. Hence a knowledge of 

 which bees go with a swarm is practically necessar.y 

 If we would succeed. That all old bees, as above 

 quoted, should compose the whole of the swarm, 

 would seem a strange perfection of goodness; for in 

 that case, where would the nurse-bees and the wax- 

 workers come from? That old bees do not nurse 

 the larva', or build comb, any one can prove by in- 

 troducing an Italian queen into a black swarm of 



