MICROBIAL DISEASES OF INSECTS 925 



affected with American foul brood; likewise when these scales are placed 

 in ordinary meat broth, incubated twenty-four hours and then heated 

 to 65 for twenty minutes; infection in this case is due to the presence 

 of spores. Pure cultures of B. larva mixed with sterile sugar sirup and 

 fed to healthy colonies produce the disease within three weeks. B. 

 larva can be obtained in pure culture from such diseased larvae. 



A fact of special importance not only in the technic of making 

 studies but also in the control of the disease is that colonies in which 

 the disease has been produced through artificial inoculation can be 

 kept in the experimental apiary without transmitting the disease to 

 others. 



B. larva may be obtained in large quantities suitable for experi- 

 mental inoculation by diluting and filtering the crushed bodies of 

 bee larvae through a Berkefeld or other fine filter. 



CONTROL. The treatment of an infectious bee disease consists 

 primarily in the elimination or the removal of the cause of the disease. 

 Effort is not made to save the larvae already dead or dying, but to stop 

 further devastation by removing all material capable of transmitting 

 the cause of the trouble. The swarm is transferred from the infected 

 hive to a clean disinfected hive; the infected combs from the old hive 

 should either be burned, melted, or boiled thoroughly before the wax is 

 fit for use again. The honey taken from the infected hive should be 

 buried or at least removed so that no bees can use it for food. This 

 treatment may have to be repeated before the disease is under control. 

 Brood from badly diseased colonies should be burned, buried or other- 

 wise destroyed at once. Combs even if they appear white and clean 

 should be melted. Chemical disinfectants should not be relied upon. 

 Infected hives should be burned over inside with a gasoline or oil torch. 



SEPTICEMIA OF THE COCKCHAFER, Melolontha vulgaris 

 Bacillus melolontha Chatton* 



HISTORY. In May, 1912, while studying the effect of d'Herelle's 

 B. acridiorum on the cockchafer, Chatton noticed that the cockchafers 

 were dying from a spontaneous septicemia; this he found later was due 

 to a coccobacillus which he named B. melolontha. 



SYMPTOMS. No symptoms are noted. 



* Chatton, E.: Spontaneous septicemia in the cockchafer and the silk worm due to cocco- 

 bacilli. Compt. rend. acad. sci. 156, 1913. PP. 1707-1709. 



