188? 



GLt:AKLNGS In bee cuLtUre. 



«i.3 



A NEW BEE-ENEMY. 



PKOF. COOK TKI.1,8 IS OF ANOTHKK CITKIOUS IN- 

 SKCT. 



K. W. J. ELLISON, of Statebiirg-, S. (.'., sends 

 nic a hug which sucks the blood and life 

 from his bees. As I have never heard of 

 this bug as a bee-enemy, I am much inter- 

 ested in it. Indeed, I knew of only one bee- 

 kiiler among' the bugs proper, before this one came: 

 that is, the curious stinging- bug, Phymata eroKH. 

 Fab., which is fully described and illustrated in ray 

 Manual, last edition, p. liS'.i. This new bee-stabber — 

 1 will christen it the bee-stabber— as Mr. K. says it 

 stabs the bee and sucks it dry— is known in science 

 as Kuthyrlix/nchus Flofidamts, Linu. As would be in- 

 ferred by its generic name, it has a very powerful 

 four-.iointed beak, which is shown magnified in the 

 Hgure. From the specific name given bj' the great 

 Swedish natui-alist, Linna-us, we should expect it to 

 occur in Florida as well as in South Carolina. Prob- 

 ably the one described by Linnicus came from 

 Florida. This insect was also described b.v Th. Ssiy, 

 as Fentatnma emarginata. His description of this 

 insect, like all his descriptions, is. very accurate, as 

 will be seen by looking at the figure which T send. 



Ascribe, name, and will e.v))lain their habits. Jn 

 sending insects, be sure to put them into a close 

 strong box, so that they may not be crushed in 

 transit. It is not necessaiy to give them any ven- 

 tilation, nor usually to furnish any food. Cateriiil- 

 lars should have some of their food in the box with 

 them. A. J. (^OOK. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



BEE-STABBER— Bl((/i?y'''!/'lt'''"S Fl(t)ida)Hh<. 



which is drawn natural size. "From Georgia. 

 Body purplish blue." This one is greenish blue. 

 " Rostrum pale fulvous; thorax at posterior angles, 

 with a cylindrical emarginate spine; scutel having 

 three orbicular fulvous spots; feet at base pale ful- 

 vous; beneath, under the i-ostrum, region of the 

 feet, middle of the ventral base, anus, and triangu- 

 lar lateral spot, fulvous. Length one-half inch. 



" Female.— Thorax with the anterior and lateral 

 margins and longitudinal line in the middle dull 

 fulvous: the two basal spots of the scutel some- 

 times confluent. Length three-fifths of an inch." 

 The one I have from South Cai-oliua, as will be seen 

 by the Hgure, is a female. Mr. Say received his 

 specimen from Savannah, Ga. 



The near relatives of this insect are often preda- 

 ceous, and so are very valuable. Usually, however, 

 few are so brave as to attack bees, and are wholly 

 our friends, as they destroy manj- of our most de- 

 structive insect-foes. This one, no doubt, also does 

 much good, and it Is only to be regretted that he 

 has this one sin to account foi*. I presume, howev- 

 er, that he will not draw very hea\ilj"on the apiary, 

 and so from his general good character we may ex- 

 cuse this one dereliction. Should he so prey upon 

 our bees that we feel the loss, then I could only sug- 

 gest the same remedy that I have recommended 

 for the "bee-hawks'— the large dragon-flies that 

 attack and destroy our bees— to capture '.them by 

 hand. I should be very glad if Mr. Ellison could 

 send me a dozen of these handsome bugs. Indeed, 

 I am glad to get insects from bee-keeping subscrib- 

 ers of Gr.EANiNOS and all others, and will gladly de- 



BEST HONEY FOB WINTEEING. 



O. O. I'OI'PI.KTON (ilVES US HIS VIEWS ON THE 

 MATTER. 



/P|EPEATEDLY, during the past ten years or 

 ^f more, have correspondents to our bee-peri- 

 ls odicals stated that they " reserve frames of 

 f: sealed clover honey, to be returned to the 

 bees for winter stores." Others have seem- 

 ed to prefer basswood honey, while others have 

 been fully as positive that fall stores were as good 

 if not safer winter food. Only a few weeks ago, 

 replies to a query in the question department of 

 one of our journals showed a great diversity of 

 oi)iuion among several of our leading apiarists. 

 Now. why all this diversity of opinion, and what 

 are really the facts in the matter? And as this 

 thing of obtaining the best winter food for our bees 

 lies at the very foundation of successful wintering, 

 I will give my views, hoping to draw out the ideas 

 of others until some slight advance on our present 

 knowledge be made. I will confine myself entirely 

 to the question of best honey, not touching the 

 feeding of sugar syrup at all, leaving that to those 

 who have experience in the use of that kind of 

 food. 



For reasons not worth while to mention, a large 

 number of bee-keepers will not or can not use su- 

 gar, so this subject of best honey can not be dis- 

 missed by simjily giving the advice, " Use sugar." 



During the first ten or twelve years I kept bees 

 in Iowa, the crop of early or white honey was 

 usuallj' quite small, rarely being one-third of the 

 entire crop, while the yield from buckwheat and 

 fall flowers was abundant. For the last five or six 

 years conditions have entirely changed, so that 

 three-fourths or more of my crop have been white, 

 mostly from the clovers, while the yield of dark or 

 fall honey has been very light. With this change 

 of the honey season came a change in the result of 

 wintering, and the cause had to be investigated. I 

 think that nearly all fruit-raisers have noticed the 

 fact that, as a rule, a full crop meant also a crop 

 of good quality, while a light crop meant also an 

 inferior quality of fruit as well as small quanti- 

 ty. This seems to be a rule of very wide applica- 

 tion, the conditions necessary to the production of 

 a full crop seeming to be also necessary to the 

 bringing it to its most perfect condition. Thi? rule, 

 which is so prevalent in the fruit kingdom, seems 

 also to govern in the flower world, in all that per- 

 tains to the secretion of nectar. So far as I have 

 observed for a number of j'ears past, whenever any 

 one kind of flowers .\ields honey largely, especially 

 if the yield is long continued, the ijualitj- of the 

 honey is almost certain to be good; while if the 

 yield is light, the quality will be correspondingly 

 poor. Wet and dry weather modifies this rule 

 somewhat, but to a much less extent than T used to 

 suppose was the case. 



Several years ago, at the time when my liarvest of 

 white honey was so light, I noticed over and over 



