ISLE OF WIGHT BEE DISEASE 213 



past history, and as such has an interesting historic 

 background, but little else. In England, where the 

 production of raw silk is not undertaken, and also in 

 Australia, more interest is at present manifested in a 

 parasite nearly allied to Nosema bombycis, which, as it 

 destroys the bees, is named N. apis. Here again, the 

 spores of the parasite were recognized before the life- 

 cycle was investigated, and it was not till 1911 that 

 it fell to the lot of the present writers to publish at 

 length the life-history of the parasite, though in 1906 

 we had found the organism and proved it the cause 

 of disease. 



The year 1904 was noteworthy to many bee- 

 keepers in England, for in that year, a " new " and 

 " mysterious " disease appeared among the hives in 

 the Isle of Wight, and was promptly termed " Isle 

 of Wight" disease. Great precautions were taken 

 to prevent the spread of the disease to the mainland, 

 but unfortunately the efforts were ineffectual, and 

 gradually outbreaks occurred from Hampshire in the 

 south to Wick and Stornoway as the extreme limits 

 in Scotland. Many suggestions as to the cause of 

 the disease were made, but one after the other broke 

 down. In 1911, on a recurrence in virulence of the 

 outbreak, Fantham and Porter exhibited before the 

 Zoological Society of London the parasite N. apis, 

 together with specimens of infected bees, and draw- 

 ings of the organisms. They announced that since 

 1906 they had experimentally proved that when this 

 organism was present in the food-canals of the bees, 

 they died rapidly, and that " Isle of Wight " victims 

 also always contained the parasite. Bees artificially 



