330 Enemies of Bees — TFosps, Spiders. 



the wing covers are short, and the beetle's abdomen fairly 

 drags with its weight of eggs. The eggs are laid in the earth. 

 The larvae when first hatched crawl upon some flower, and as 

 occasion permits, crawl upon a bee and thus are borne to the 

 hive, where they feast on eggs, honey, and pollen. These in- 

 sects undergo what M. Faber styles hyper-metamorphosis, as 

 the larva appears in four different forms instead of one. The 

 Spanish fly — Cantharides of the shops — is an allied insect. 

 Some of our common blister beetles are very destructive to 

 plants. 



WASPS. 



' I have never seen bees injured by wasps. In the South, as 

 in Europe, we hear of such depredations. I have received 

 wasps, sent by our southern brothers, which were caught de- 

 stroying bees. The wasp sent me is the large handsome Stizus 

 spmiosus, Drury. It is black, with its abdomen imperfectly 

 ringed with yellow. The wasps are very predacious, and do 

 immense benefit by captunng and eating our insect pests. I 

 have seen wasps carry ofi" "currant-worms" with a celerity 

 that was most refreshmg. 



As the solitary wasps are too few in numbers to do much 

 damage — even if they ever do any — any great damage which 

 may occur would doubtless come from the social paper-makers. 

 In this case, we have only to find the nests and apply the 

 torch, or hold the muzzle of a shot-gun to the nest and shoot. 

 This should be done at nightfall when the wasps have all 

 gathered home. Let us not forget that the wasps do much 

 good, and so not j)ractice wholesale slaughter unless we have 

 strong evidence against them. 



ePIDEES. 



y These sometimes spread their nets so as to capture bees. 

 If porticoes — which are, I think, worse than a useless expense 

 — are omitted, there will very seldom be any cause for com- 

 ■plaints against the spiders, which on the whole are friends. 

 As the bee-keeper who would permit spiders to worry his bees 

 would not read books, I will discuss this subject no further. 



THE KING BIED — l^annus Garolinensis. 



.This bird, often called the bee-martin, is one of the fly- 

 catchers, a very valuable family of birds, as they are wholly 



