American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Vol. III. 



MAKCH, 1S<5>!4. 



No. 9. 



(From the Bien«nzeitung.] 



Foulbrood. 



[CONCLUDKD PROM LAST NCMBKR.] 

 §«• 



How DOES FOCLBROOD ORIGINATE? 



Tins question is still involved in the utmost 

 obscurity, and the opinions of l)ee-keepers differ 

 greatly. My own conviction is that it arises from 

 causes as various as the phenome na it presents and 

 the character it assumes. I can hence do little 

 more how than restate briefly the views enter- 

 tained of it by prominent writers on bee culture. 



First View. — It is believed by some that a 

 minute black fly, the Phora incrasmta, enters 

 the hive and deposites its eggs in the brood, se- 

 lecting us the nidus only the uncapped but most 

 advanced larva>, and depositing in eacli only a 

 single ^^g. The phora larva hatched from this 

 f^gis, iiarasiticall}' consumes the viscera of the 

 bee-larva which it inhabits, just as the larva of the 

 ichneumon fly lives on or in the common cab- 

 bage caterpillar. Maturing in the couse of five 

 days, it then leaves the carcase of the bee-larva 

 by an opening visible by the naked eye, and per- 

 forating the cap of the cell, fulls to the bottom of 

 the hive, and either spins its cocoon among the 

 droppings found tlu're, or passes out to undergo 

 its further metamoi'iihoses in tlie earth. So long 

 as phora larva inhabits the bee-larva, the latter, 

 according to Dr. DonhotF, remains alive, but 

 finally dies in consequence of tlie abstraction of 

 its internal fattj' substance by its parasitic foe. 

 Decomposition thus virtuallj' begins already 

 while the larva is still living, though running 

 into jnitresceuce only after death. 



Dr. Asmusz alleges tliat he found manj' phora 

 larvre in the larvae of bees, and says that to see 

 them it is only necessary to decapitate a bee- 

 larva in which the first symptoms of foulbrood 

 are exhibited and carefullj' press out the juices 

 of the body. By repeating this process several 

 times, the operator can iiardi}' fail to detect one or 

 more phora larv*. Or if the body of a bee-larva 

 be held l)efore the light of a candle in a dark- 

 ened chamber, the motions of the contained para- 

 sitic larva will be plainly perceptible. But, ac- 



cording to Dr. Asmusz, phora larvae are not found 

 in all bee-larvaj, but only in comparatively the 

 smaller number. Yet, by the miasm diff'used in 

 the hive by the putrid larva?, others not thus 

 parasitically infected, also become infected, die, 

 and putrify. Thus, while a portion only of the 

 brood perishes, and another portion ilevelopes 

 in health, the case is analogous only to what oc- 

 curs in other pestdential diseases, such as perip- 

 neumonia, rinderpest, &c., whereof of animals 

 similarly exposed, some are infected, while others 

 escape, owing perhaps to a peculiar habit of body 

 at the time. The like is often observed when 

 contagious diseases, such as pestilence, cholera, 

 typhus, scavlctina, &c., to which the human sys- 

 tem is subject, prevails: numbers are stricken 

 down, while others remain unattacked, even in 

 the most infected districts. This is the view of 

 Dr. Asmusz, as presented in his treatise on the 

 parasites of the honey bee-, and it must be ad- 

 mitted that the phora, as figured on his plates, 

 has a decidedl}- mephistopheliau appearance and 

 expression. 



Against this view it may be urged — 

 Firat. That the phoni incrassata abounds 

 everywhere, and is bred in every hive contain- 

 ing dead bees. Yet there are numerous districts 

 totally exempt from foulbrood. This, as Mr. 

 Kleine remarks, could not be the case, if such 

 were its origin — for the same cause should, in 

 like circu)nsl:ances, produce the same effect, if 

 nature designed that the phora should lay its 

 eggs in the larva' of the honey bee. 



Secondly. The phora incraasala does not lay 

 its eggs in linnr/, but only in dead organisms. 



TMrdli/, If, as Dr. Asmusz seems to have 

 found by microscopic examinations, the phora 

 hicrassatiidoc^, in exceptional cases, laj^ its eggs 

 in bee larvtf, it would be in the highest degree 

 singular that the result should be the putricf de- 

 composition of such larva> — a resull never pro- 

 duced in other analogous cases. And why do 

 only larviT thus destroyed by the phora dilfuse 

 a putvid miasm, such as is not diffused by decom- 

 posing larvjc which have died from some other 

 cause. 



Fourthly, If Dr. Asmusz's views were correct- 

 the pupte oi phora ineraisata would be as nume- 

 rous in foidbroody hives as in other hives cou- 



