464 



divided, giving full sets of old combs, feed- 

 ing all my extracted honey from the old 

 combs at times of dearth in bee-pastures. 

 Shall feed mostly after the honey season is 

 over. My hees are now doing finely on the 

 red clover of second growth ; have dene 

 finely on first growth of clover, even the 

 large or mammoth variety ; while the blacks 

 take the back seat. I have been trying to 

 rear queens in nuclei of small combs, all in 

 full cards of comb ; but almost invariably 

 when the young queens commenced to lay 

 they would swarm out with a few bees, 

 without giving me any notice of their leav- 

 ing. One of them, without my knowledge, 

 entered a hive of blacks and by some means 

 superseded the dark lady which was brood- 

 ing nicely, and now they are as fine a col- 

 ony of Italians as I have. Will someone 

 inform me how to obviate the loss of young 

 queens from at once leaving the nuclei as 

 soon as fertilized? All have left me but one. 

 Success to the American Bee Journal, 

 as I could hardly know how to get along 

 without its monthly visits. J. B. Ide. 



[You have not given young queens room 

 enough to deposit eggs after fertilization, 

 the comb soon being filled with eggs and 

 honey, they could not idly wait for brood to 

 hatch out. Had you given plenty of empty 

 combs, you would not have had your nuclei 

 deserted. The mixed drone and worker 

 brood was undoubtedly owing to a superan- 

 nuated queen.— Ed.] 



Galena, Mo., Aug. 18, 1879. 

 Please give us an account of the "var- 

 mint" inclosed, per Bee Journal. Hehas 

 a sting H inch long and is called by the 

 natives here, "cow-killer." They are said 

 to be much larger in Texas and actually to 

 kill cows there. I gave him a dead wasp 

 and a few flies for grub en route, though I 

 don't know as they will agree with the 

 gentleman's taste. Harold Fisk. 



[The formidable ant-like insect sent by 

 Mr. Fisk, is the Mutillacoccinia, Linn., com- 

 monly known as cow killer. It is really a 

 digging wasp, belonging to the lowest 

 family Mutilladse, and closely related to the 

 ant family, as seen in the form of the insect 

 and the absence of wings in the females. 

 While the presence of a large and terrible 

 sting in the females and the absence of the 

 same in the males, shows the true wasp 

 character of this curious insect. 



The cow-killer is one inch long, ant-like 

 in form, with a bright red head, thorax and 

 abdomen. Transverse dorsal lines of black 

 extend across the front and middle of the 

 abdomen. The whole under parts, the union 

 of thorax and abdomen, the legs and the 

 front of the head about the mouth are dark 

 brown. 



Why the name cow-killer is applied to 

 these insects, I can not tell. That it is sug- 



gestive of fact is not at all likely, though it 

 is stated that its sting is very severe. 



Mr. Benton tells me that once in Ten- 

 nessee he picked up one of these insects, 

 which there, are known as red ants, when a 

 friend exclaimed in horror, " Let it go or it 

 will kill you!" His nerves caused him to 

 obey, though his reason told him that such 

 fear was undoubtedly groundless. 



The winged male is smaller than the 

 female, and as it has no sting is not to be 

 feared at all. 



If Mr. Fisk or any other friends of the 

 American Bee Journal, will send me 

 two or three pairs of these wasps, I will 

 be very grateful. They dig holes in the 

 ground, and store their earthen cells with 

 insects. 



This insect it seems possesses more than 

 a common interest to the apiarist. Mr. A. 

 H. R. Bryant, of Clarksville, Texas, in the 

 "American Entomologist," Vol. II, page 

 337, states that he caught one of the large 

 females in his bee-hive eating the young 

 bees, and anon killing the bees with its 

 powerful sting, though utterly uudisturbed 

 by their attacks. 



The insects sent by S. L. Emery, Charter- 

 ville, Ohio, are— 



1. A sphinx moth (Sesia thysbe). These 

 moths are seen about flowers in the hot sun- 

 shine. They poise, like humming-birds, 

 above the flowers, and sip the nectar by use 

 of a very long tongue. 



2. The bee is the tailor-bee, whose 

 strange habits and cells are described in my 

 "Manual." This bee is peculiar in the 

 dense yellow hairs beneath, which are 

 usually covered with pollen. 



3. This is a fly of the predaceous family 

 Asilid?e. It is Laphria sericea, and so 

 belongs to the same genus as L. thoracica, 

 mentioned on p. 300 of 4th Edition of 

 "Manual." Is this also a bee-killer? 



The plants sent by Mr. E. S. Flanagan, 

 Belleville, Illinois, and so heartly com- 

 mended as honey plants are solidago or 

 golden-rod, and blue vervain or verbena 

 hostata. As stated in August American 

 Bee Journal, the white vervain is also a 

 fine honey plant.— A. J. Cook. 



Bounday City, Ind., Aug. 26, 1879. 

 I am very well pleased with the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, and every man having 

 bees (though but one colony) should read it. 

 My bees have done first-rate this summer, so 

 far. I wintered 5 colonies out of 18 ; but I 

 was not discouraged, I increased to 14, and 

 have taken over 200 lbs. of honey. 



David K. Knoli . 



