276 AUSTRALASIAN 



bers, which, he said, resembled cheese-mites. In a foot-note to 

 his letter, which was published in the late Journal, I suggested 

 tie probability of their having been bred in the pollen, but 

 could not say what insects they were. Since then I have 

 examined under a microscope several lots of pollen taken from 

 combs that had been stowed away for winter, and in each case 

 I discovered these mites. On describing their appearance to 

 Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, curator of the Auckland Museum, he 

 said he had no doubt they were mites, but whether parasitical 

 or not he could not say. Professor Cook says : " The bee-mite 

 is very small, hardly more than five milimeters (one-fiftieth of 

 an inch) long. The female is slightly larger than the male, 

 and somewhat transparent. The colour is black, though the 

 legs and more transparent areas of the females appear yellow- 

 ish." Those I examined were of a greyish colour, and semi- 

 transparent ; the full-grown insects possessing eight legs, and 

 some having long bristly-looking hairs scattered over their 

 bodies. 



I have no doubt that where very numerous they might 

 become very troublesome, and do considerable injury to the 

 bees, though I doubt much whether they would be able 

 to gain a footing in strong colonies. I would suggest as a 

 remedy making an examination of the pollen in the hives 

 where they are found, and removing all that is infested by 

 them ; also to shift the bees into clean hives, and wash the 

 bottom-boards with a solution of carbolic acid. Probably 

 spraying the infested combs with a solution of phenol would 

 rid them of the pest. 



A CAUTION TO IMPORTERS OF BEES. 



I have it from good authority that the bee-moth mentioned 

 by Mr. Fullwood as having worked such sad havoc amongst 

 the black bees in Queensland was accidentally introduced into 

 that country in the following manner :— In one of the earlier 

 attempts to introduce Italian bees (previous to the one made 

 by Mr. Fullwood in 1880) an imported hive with bees had 

 been landed at the apiary of a bee-keeper in the vicinity of 

 Brisbane. This hive, it appears, not only contained bees, but 

 also their greatest enemy, the wax moth peculiar to the country 

 from whence the bees had come, in all stages of growth, from 



