



























THE PARASITES OF THE HONEY-BEE. 197 
When impelled by instinct to provide for the continuance 
of its species, the Phora enters the bee-hive and gains admis- 
sion to a cell, when it bores with its ovipositor through the 
skin of the bee-larva, laying its long oval egg in a horizon- 
tal position just under the skin. The embryo of the Phora 
is already well developed, so that in three hours after the 
egg is inserted in the body of its unsuspecting and helpless 
host, the embryo is nearly ready to hatch. In about two 
hours more it actually breaks off the larger end of the egg- 
shell and at once begins to eat the fatty tissues of its victim, 
its posterior half still remaining in the shell. In an hour 
more, it leaves the egg entirely and buries itself completely 
in the fatty portion of the young bee. 
The maggot moults three times. In twelve hours after 
the last moult it turns around with its head towards the pos- 
terior end of the body of its host, and in another twelve 
hours, having become full-fed, it bores through the skin of 
the young, eats its way through the brood-covering of the 
cell and falls to the bottom of the hive, when it changes to a 
pupa in the dust and dirt, or else it creeps out of the door 
and transforms in the earth. Twelve days after, the fly 
appears, 
The young bee, emaciated and enfeebled by the attacks of 
its ravenous parasite, dies, and its decaying body fills the 
bottom of the cell with a slimy foul-smelling mass, called 
“foul-brood.” This gives rise to a miasma which poisons 
the neighboring brood, until the contagion (for the disease 
is analogous to typhus, jail, or ship-fever) spreads through the 
Whole hive, unless promptly checked by removing the cause 
and thoroughly cleansing the hive. 
oul-brood sometimes attacks our American hives, and, 
though the cause may not be known, yet from the hints given 
above we hope to have the history of our species of Phora 
cleared up, should our disease be found to be sometimes due 
to the attacks of such a parasite fly. 
We figure the Bee-louse of Europe (Plate 4, fig. 4, Braula 
