250 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



shows the conspicuous galls ; a practised eye will even soon 

 tell an injured leaf by the peculiarities of its upper surface. 

 If we now look to a remedy, how rnost effectually to destroy 

 the progeny of these midges, it is evident that we have to 

 remove the affected leaves before the escape of their inmates. 

 Such leaves should be burned, and not simply thrown on the 

 manure-heap, else instead of checking the plague we foster 

 it ; and as an additional precaution we would recommend, 

 likewise, to destroy the whole foliage of the season, after its 

 fall, instead of letting it rot on the ground. — Albert Midler ; 

 * Gardener''s Chronicle^ December 31, 1870. 



Encasement of Queen Bees. — Perhaps there are hw more 

 unaccountable occurrences in an observant apiarian's expe- 

 rience than the discovery of a small, but hard and densely 

 packed ball of living bees, in the centre of which will be 

 foundj if the trouble be taken of carefully unravelling the 

 tangled knot, their own queen, living probably, but in a more 

 or less moribund condition. This is a sight, however, which 

 seldom comes under the notice of the ordinary bee-keeper, 

 who does nor aim at much beyond the commonest methods 

 of management. The scientific bee-keeper, particularly if he 

 attempts much in the way of making artificial swarms and 

 raising artificial queens, will not have pursued his peculiar 

 observations and manipulations very long before he will have 

 one or more instances of this very interesting, though at the 

 same time very disagreeable, encasement of a queen occurring 

 under his own immediate notice. The first case of the sort 

 that I remember as taking place in my own apiary was 

 attended with fatal consequences. A Ligurian queen was 

 presented to me by a friend residing at a considerable 

 distance. Having been sent in a moderate-sized nucleus 

 box, accompanied with the bees of the small artificial swarm 

 by which she was reared, and all being sufficiently well 

 packed, ventilated, and supphed with food, she arrived in 

 very good condition. 1 was desirous of placing her at the 

 head of a strong swarm, so that I might obtain, as soon as 

 possible, the full benefit of her breeding powers, and be 

 enabled to raise numerous young queens from her, provided 

 she proved by her progeny to be a })ure-bred Ligurian. She 

 was, therefore, enclosed with a few of her subjects in a 

 perforated zinc queen cage, which was fixed among the 



