BEES AFFLICTED WITH LICE. 309 



him to see. Huber closes his description of these fortifications 

 with the following attempt at the sublime ; " How has this 

 foresight been accorded to those creatures which, as we 

 believe, have not received the gift of intelligence ! These 

 observations are continual hymns of adoration addressed to 

 the Author of all things." 



It is not yet a determined point, whether the little insect 

 with which the bees are afflicted ought to be classed in the 

 rank of their enemies. It is undoubtedly a species of the 

 louse, which is not found on any other kind of fly. It is 

 scarcely or ever found upon the young bees, but solely upon 

 the old ones, and it is also the old ones only of certain hives 

 which are subject to it. In general, only one of them 

 has been discovered upon each bee, and no great trouble is 

 required to obtain a view of it ; it is of a reddish hue and 

 about the size of the head of a very small pin. It is almost 

 always to be found on the corslet, but no favourable opinion 

 is formed of those hives, the bees of which are infected with 

 these vermin. But the question is, are they in reality any- 

 wise injurious to the bees ? and it may be answered, as far 

 as our observations extend, in the negative ; at all events, it is 

 certain that they do not cause them much pain or annoy- 

 ance : for, although it may not indeed be so easy to the 

 bee to draw one of its feet over its corslet, as over any 

 other part of its body, (and it is perhaps that very cir- 

 cumstance which determines the louse to place itself there,) 

 yet it is to be seen in many places from which the leg of 

 the bee might easily dislodge it, but where it is nevertheless 

 allowed to remain unmolested. On the whole, these insects 

 are considered as highly injurious to the bees, and various 

 remedies have been proposed for their extirpation, but with- 

 out any decisive success. 



Amongst the quadrupeds, the bear, the fox, and the bad- 

 ger, may be classed as being the principal enemies of the 

 bees. The former, being an animal no longer indigenous 



