156 



of dead was collected ; six gave a negative result as regards 

 Nosemci, while three were positive, yielding spores in very large 

 numbers. 



The remaining bees survived queenless to the middle of 

 December, and repeated examinations were made for Nos ma. 

 Infection was found m a high percentage of cases right up till the 

 end. 



Case 2. History of a Queen. At the beginning of October two 

 frames of bees taken from a healthy stock were given a young 

 Carnolan queen. Within a limited pi riod in the course of a 

 routine examination the bees of this nucleus were discovered to be 

 generally infected with the parasite Nosema apis. Control 

 examination of the parent stock gave negative results for Nosetna, 

 and the previous history of the experimental hive has no record of 

 Nosetna contamination. Suspicion thus rested on the queen as the 

 source of this infertion. With a view to testing this, the queen 

 was introduced at the beginning of November to a stock of Irish 

 bees in another apiary with a clean history as regards disease. 

 The queen of the stock was removed previously. 



Five bees from the Irish stock were examined in the middle of 

 December and one was found infected with Aosema. 



On the loth of January nine live bees were taken ; these on 

 examination yielded a negative result. Eighteen dead bees were 

 taken from the floor of the hive. Their chyle stomachs were 

 pulped and samples taken for examination. Spores of Nosetna 

 were numerous. The stock was found to be queenless at this date. 

 The dead queen was not found in the hive nor in its vicinity. 

 Tlie stock died out early in February. Practically every bee had 

 Nosetna in the spore stage. 



Possible Infection of Workers with Nosema apis frotn cleaning 

 the Queen's body. — On the 8th October five bees were confined in a 

 cage sterilised by fire with a queen immediately after she had been 

 isolated and fed on contaminated candy. She had been observed 

 to crawl upon it and her wings were seen to touch it. After the 

 bees had been with her for 24 hours she was removed. A control 

 examination was made of companion bees from the same stock 

 and no Nosetna was found. 



The bees were not examined until on the 17th one was found 

 dead. A search was made, but no trace of Nosetna was observed. 



On the 2 1 St another bee had died, and it also yielded a negative 

 result in a Nosettta search. 



On the 25th the three remaining bees were killed and examined. 

 Two were found to contain Nosetna, one showing spores in fair 

 numbers and the other with meroiits and spores in great abundance. 

 The third bee was found to be free. 



Conveyance of Nosema through the alimentary canal of the 

 Queen. — Experiment I. On the i8th October, a queen after being 

 isolated for an hour, was fed with candy which we liberally con- 

 taminated with spores of Nosema apis. She was observed in the 

 course of a period of four hours to repeatedly feed upon this 

 material. At the end of this time she was removed and placed in 

 a small cage along with a small number of bees. She was left 



