OR, MANUAl, OF THB APIARY. 



499 



with this evil, should it become of great magnitude. We may 

 well hope that this habit of eating bees is an exceptional one 

 with it. The afEected bees will be found dead at early dawn in 

 front of the hives. 



BKE-LOUSB — BRAUI,A Ca;CA, NITSCH. 



This louse (Fig. 287) is a wingless Dipteron, and one of 

 the uniques among insects. It is a blind, spider-like parasite, 

 and serves as a very good connecting link between insects and 

 spiders, or, still better, between the Diptera, where it belongs, 

 and the Hemiptera, which contains the bugs and most of the 

 lice. It assumes the semi-pupa state almost as soon as 



Fig. 287. 



Imago. 



Larva. 



B. coeca. — Original. 



hatched, and, strangest of all, is, considering the size of the 

 bee on which it lives, and from which it sucks its nourishment, 

 enormously large. Two or three, and sometimes as many as 

 ten, are found on a single bee. When we consider their great 

 size, we cannot wonder that they soon devitalize the bees. 



These have done little damage, except in the south of Con- 

 tinental Europe, Cyprus, and other parts of the Orient. The 

 reason that they have not been naturalized in other ^arts of 

 Europe and America may be owing to climate, though I think 

 more likely it is due to improved apiculture. Mr. Frank Ben- 

 ton, who has had much experience with these bee-lice in 

 Cyprus, writes me that the Braula is no serious pest if the bees 



