326 



Enemies of Bees — Bee-Lofuse. 



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 hatched, 



Fig. 189. 



Imago. Larva. 



and, strangest of all, is, considering the size of the bee on 

 which it lives and from which it sucks its nourishment, enor- 

 mously 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 parts of 

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

 think more likely it is due to improved apiculture. Mr. 

 Frank Benton, who has had much experience with these bee 

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

 the bees are properly cared for. ' 'In fact, if hives are kept 

 clean inside, and colonies supplied with young queens and 

 kept strong, the . damage done by the Braula is very slight if 

 anything. In old immovable-comb hives, where the combs 

 are black and thickened, and in case the queens are old, or 

 where through some extraneous cause the colonies have become 

 weak, these lice are numerous on queens and workers. ' I have 

 not noticed them on the drones. Since they are found on 

 workers as well as the queen, their removal from the latter will 

 bring but temporary relief. About ten is the greatest number. 



