ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



97 



human murderers, the savages of the 

 insect world. They take their prey to 

 some extent, perhaps generally, on the 

 wing and even seize dragon-flies, bum- 

 ble bees and tiger beetles. The pain 

 of a common horse-fly's bite is gener- 

 ally understood to be maddening in 

 its sharpness. The wolf-fly proboscis 

 lacks all softness and when inserted 

 into the victim, is held there by stiff 

 bristles, and the fly sucks out, — not a 

 little blood — the whole mass of soft 

 internal organs! Now, this bee-killer 

 is fond of other insects. It destroys 

 rose-bugs and doubtless many other 

 insects which are injurious. However, 

 Dr. Riley watched a number of these 

 bee-killers for a while and observed 

 that although many other insects 

 were present, they gave exclusive at- 

 tention during this observation to the 

 selection of honey bees. The sting of 

 a bee seems not to affect them, except 

 to make them tighten their grasp on 

 their doomed victims. They seem 

 generally to pierce the thin integu- 

 ment between the head and thorax, or 

 vulgarly expressed, the bees "get it 

 in the neck" at as high an observed 

 rate as 141 bees in a day by one bee- 

 killer. The members of this group 

 of predaceous flies have the peculiar 

 habit of choosing a perch and after 

 each sally returning to the same 

 perch, whether with or without game. 

 When a perch is selected near a bee 

 colony, it is expedient for the owner 

 of the bees to secure a net and wait 

 until the spoiler lights on his perch 

 with prey. When this happens, net 

 the fly. and send it to some entomolo- 

 gist with a record of its conduct. They 

 will put it up for a term of years. To 

 try and catch a wolf-fly or bee-killer 

 when he is watching for prey rather 

 than feeding on his prey is nearly 

 hopeless, as they are thus very alert 

 and very swift. The bee-killer is in 

 the adult stage in June and July. In 

 self defense the bee-killer may inflict 

 a painful bite upon his captor. 



BEE LOUSE. 



Packard. 



A wingless, minute, blind insect, 

 with large head, thorax transverse, 

 ring shaped, half as long as head. Ab- 

 domen is round, flve jointed and legs 

 thick with long claws, enabling them 

 to cling to hairs of bees. May be 

 compared with fleas, its body being 

 flattened vertically, while that of the 



flea is flattened horizontally. Trans- 

 formations show it to be undoubtedly 

 a degraded Muscid, with a true pupa- 

 rium. Those of the flea, with its 

 wormlike, more highly organized 

 larvae and the free obtected pupa 

 show that, though wingless it occupies 

 a -much higher grade in the dipterous 

 series. 



It is found living parasitically on 

 honey bees in Europe. Antennae are 

 short, two-jointed and sunken in deep 

 pits. It is from one-half to two-thirds 

 line long. Larvae is headless, oval, 

 11-jointed, white. On the day it 

 hatches it sheds its skin and changes 

 to an oval puparium of a dark brown 

 color. It is a body parasite, one or 

 two occurring on the body of a bee, 

 though sometimes they greatly multi- 

 ply and are very troublesome to the 

 bees. 



Meloe Americanus belong to a fam- 

 ily and seem to be our lone species in 

 Pennsylvania. The adult is well 

 shown in Mr. Walton's figure. The 

 head is broad, thorax somewhat nar- 

 rower. The abdomen is large, ovate, 

 full, with short wing covers, overlap- 

 ping, rounded at tips. The antennae 

 are twisted and knotted in the male. 

 The texture of the body is soft, the 

 color beautiful deep blue. 



The life history is varied from that 

 of most insects, even from other Co- 

 leoptera, in having, instead of egg, 

 larvae, pupa and adult egg, larvae 

 (the feeding stage, which attains a 

 length of .06 inch), the second larvae 

 stage (grub-like, but head masked, 

 "semi-pupa"), third larvae stage (also 

 grub-like) pupa and adult. The true 

 larvae is suggestive in shape of a 

 louse, or, when highly magnified, 

 strikingly resembles the nymph pf a 

 stone- fly. This creature hatches from 

 the eggs which are laid in the ground, 

 and get a foothold on a bee, when the 

 first opportunity offers. These are 

 body parasites of the bees, probably 

 wormlike, more highly organized 

 more commonly on wild bees, and may 

 sometimes be found on willow or oth- 

 er blossoms frequented by the bees. 



In conclusion I would quote Lang- 

 stroth: "My limits forbid me to speak 

 of wasps, hornets millipedes (or wood 

 lice) spiders, and other enemies of 

 bees. If the apiarian keeps his stock 

 strong they will usually be their own 

 best protectors, and unless they are 

 guarded by thousands ready to die in 



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