BETTS ! THE FUNGI OF THE BEE-HIVE. 131 
plentiful in Denmark that year, and it is suggested that this was 
the source of the disease. Lack of material prevented a continua- 
tion of the work, so that the exact species concerned was not deter- 
mined. 
Bennemann and Hiibner (2) in 1881 described Mucor mucedo 
as the cause of a bee-disease. According to their figures, this 
species had branched sporangiophores, a smooth sporangium-wall 
and globose spores. No dimensions are given. The Mucor was 
itself attacked by a parasite, a species of Chaetocladium (?); and the 
authors mention Penicillium glaucum as being also present on the 
bodies of the dead bees. 
Howard (16, 17) in 1896 and 1900 recorded several fungi as 
present on diseased combs examined by him. Among them were 
Penicillium glaucum, an Aspergillus (‘‘ Aspergillus pollinis’’), a 
species of Mucor, Dactylium roseum, species of Hendersonia and 
Massaria, and others. I have unfortunately been unable to see the 
1896 paper, so cannot give any particulars as to the dimensions, etc., 
of Aspergillus pollinis, which, I believe, are there given. 
Maassen (20) in 1906 described Aspergillus flavus as the cause 
of the bee-disease known in Germany as ‘‘ Steinbrut.’? The course 
of this malady is somewhat similar to that of the disease described 
by Cowan (6). The brood becomes mummified and permeated by 
mycelium ; the adult bees succumb later, at about the same time that 
the fungus on the dead brood develops its conidial stage. Hein (13) 
describes the disease; and adds (l.c., foot-note, p. 7) that, in a case 
of ‘‘ Steinbrut ’’ investigated by the Royal Institute for Bee-keeping 
at Erlangen, Bavaria, in 1910, the causal fungus was Aspergillus 
fumigatus. A case, evidently of the same disease, is described in 
the Bienen-Zeitung of 1860, p. 232. The species of fungus con- 
cerned was not, however, ascertained. 
“MATERIAL AND METHODS. 
The present research was begun in 1909, and some knowledge 
of the species of fungi present in bee-hives was gained by examina- 
tion of specimens of mouldy comb from healthy stocks. Reliable 
methods of sterilization were not adopted till July, 1910, however; 
and the results given in this paper are based on work done in 1911 
and 1912, the material being nearly all derived from the combs of 
stocks which died during the winters of 1910-11 and 1911-12, of the 
prevalent ‘‘ Isle of Wight ’’ bee-disease. 
Cultures were started by transferring samples of fungus from 
the combs, with sterilized implements, to test-tubes (more rarely to 
