206 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



more so than the hive bee, which is so extremely regular 

 in its ways. With an explosion almost like a little 

 bomb shot out of a flower ; with an immense hum, 

 almost startling, boom ! the great bombus hurls himself 

 up in the air from under foot; well named boom 

 bombus. Is it correct or is it only a generalisation, that 

 insects like ants and hive bees, who live in great and 

 well-organised societies, are more free from the attacks 

 of parasites than the comparatively solitary wild bees ? 

 Ants are, indeed, troubled with some parasites, but these 

 do not seem to multiply very greatly, and do not 

 seriously injure the populousness of the nest. They 

 have enemies which seize them, but an enemy is not a 

 parasite. On the other hand, too, they have mastered a 

 variety of insects, and use them for their delectation and 

 profit. Hive bees arc likewise fairly free from parasites, 

 unless, indeed, their so-called dysentery is caused by 

 some minute microbe. These epidemics, however, are 

 rare. Take it altogether, the hive bee appears compara- 

 tively free of parasites. Enemies they have, but that is 

 another matter. 



Have these highly civilised insects arrived in some 

 manner at a solution of the parasite problem ? Have 

 they begun where human civilisation may be said to 

 have ended, with a diligent study of parasitic life ? All 

 our scientific men arc now earnestly engaged in the 

 study of bacteria, microbes, mycelium, and yeast, infini- 

 tesimally minute fungi of every description, while mean- 

 time the bacillus is eating away the lives of a heavy 

 percentage of our population. Ants live in communities 

 which might be likened to a hundred Londons dotted 

 about England, so are their nests in a meadow, or, still 

 more striking, on a heath. Their immense crowds, the 

 population of China to an acre, do not breed disease. 



