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CHAPTER V. 



PARASITES OF BEES AND THEIR ENEMIES. 



Nature seems to have imposed a restraint upon the 

 undue increase of all its creatures, by creating, to check 

 it, others that prey upon them. It thus enlarges the 

 sphere of its activity by making life accessory to life, 

 and promoting thereby a more extended enjoyment of 

 all its pleasures. Other forms are brought into exist- 

 ence, and other terms given to duration than those which 

 the laws of life attach to specific organization. No abate- 

 ment is thereby made upon the quantity of contempora- 

 neous vitality, for what subsides in one rises in another, 

 and the undulation of the waves is perpetual. 



Does the quantity of life, extant upon the earth, vary ? 

 Perhaps mortality ever comes in some shape to prevent 

 it, when excess threatens to render its energy effete. 

 Yet under every circumstance the wise arrangements of 

 Providence suflSce, for everything has its enemies or its 

 parasites, which are also enemies, but frequently in dis- 

 guise. Por defence there is an implanted instinctive 

 fear, or abhorrence ; and the creature is then left to its 

 skill, prudence, or strength, either to evade or to miti- 

 gate, to the extent of its capability, the danger of the 

 attack. 



