DISEASES OF BEES. 187 



no brood can be raised. The difficulty of collect- 

 ing pollen was ascribed to the continual closing of 

 the flowers over the anthers, the want of sun to 

 burst the anthers, and the washing away of the 

 pollen by the frequent showers after they did 

 burst. The fatal influence ascribed to the wetness 

 of the spring of 1782 seems to be improbable ; 

 though the wet might have affected the quantity 

 of bees bred, it was not likely to put a stop to 

 their breeding altogether, and the young bees 

 ought at any rate to have escaped the desolating 

 evil, if it were old age alone ; yet wherever the 

 mortality once made its appearance, every bee 

 became its victim., 



A similar incident occurred among the wasps in 

 the year 1824. The queen wasps were unusually 

 numerous in the spring of that year, and yet 

 scarcely a wasp could be seen of any sort in the 

 ensuing summer and autumn, though there was a 

 great deal of fine weather and plenty of sunshine, 

 the fruits having ripened remarkably well. In 

 both cases, it seems probable that the mortality 

 arose from some unfavourable circumstance at the 

 breeding season, with which we are unacquainted. 

 I am not aware that it has been attributed to any 

 specific distemper of an epidemical nature. MR. 

 KNIGHT noticed a similar occurrence, as to wasps, 

 in the year 1806 (Philosophical Transactions 1807, 

 p. 243); and in 1815, MESSRS. KIRBY and SPENCE 



