6 Department Circular 33^, U. S. Dept, of Agriculture 



When I returned to them I was not a little puzzled to see the parasite in the 

 most vivacious and strange agitation. Seated on the fore part of the bee's head 

 it was moving about w^ith incredible vivacity, as though possessed of veritable 

 rage. Now it would go to the margin of the bee's cap, with its fore feet raised, 

 stamp and scratch as hard as its weakness would allow at the base of the bee's 

 lip; then it would suddenly run back to the insertion of the antennae to renew its 

 impetuous attack immediately. I was quite taken up by my jQrst surprise, when 

 I suddenly saw all this fury turned to perfect calmness, and the little animal 

 squatted on the edge of the cap and bent down its head to the bee's mouth, 

 which was slightly trembling, and sucked up a drop of moisture. 



I instantly understood. The movements I had just witnessed were prepara- 

 tory to the animal's meals. When the louse wishes to feed it goes to the bee's 

 mouth, where the motions of its feet, armed with bent claws, produces a tickling 

 sensation, perhaps disagreeable to its host, but at least provoking some move- 

 ment of the buccal organs, which slightly open and release a small drop of honey 

 which the louse at once licks up. 



Thus the Br aula coeca is not a real parasite of the bee in the true sense of the 

 word. It is rather a guest — queer, if you like thus to consider it, like so many 

 others existing among animals. 



Losy (23, 2Jj) has studied the mouth parts of Braula in detail as 

 well as the feeding habits. His two papers are in Hungarian, but a 

 good review by Gorka {2^) gives what appears to be the essential 

 part of his results. Since this review is important, the main parts 

 are here freely translated : 



The parasites are mostly on the queen and first go over to the workers when 

 the}^ undertake the feeding of the larvae, when Braula nibbles at the food which 

 is conveyed to the brood. As soon as this feeding is ended they are all found on 

 the queen, on which mating also occurs. Their number by the end of November 

 becomes so great that the queen is in danger and she becomes weakened and in 

 late fall she perishes. In greater degrees of infestation (in unclean colonies) this 

 may occur even in summer, and may result in the death of entire colonies. * * * 

 The mouth parts of Braula form a sucking organ which is adapted to the mouth 

 parts of the bee in an astonishing manner. * * * The bee louse sucks its 

 nourishment from the outstretched mouth parts of the bee. It perceives the 

 stir w^hich occurs from the movement of the chitinous parts of the skeleton during 

 sucking, which tells it that it can again enter the mouth parts of the bee. Then it 

 quickly runs over the back of the mouth parts as the bee holds out its tongue for 

 the sucking of food, sucks up and swallows the food, or if food is allowed to drop 

 into the cells of brood Braula takes the sweet food arising from the glands of the 

 bee. The bee louse remains standing on the open jaws and the upper lip, and 

 when the jaws of the bee are about to be separated its sucking organ is opened. 

 This separation is assisted by the Braula so that it wedges with brushlike bristles 

 in between the mouth parts of the bee and separates them, then it stretches out 

 its proboscis and reaches it to the back upper surface of the tongue. As soon as 

 the tongue of the bee is in motion, the horizontally held beak of the Braula pro- 

 boscis reaches into the cavity at the base of the bee tongue which is then brought 

 forward. Here it is pinched under the paraglossa, is broadened, its bristles are 

 ruffled up, and with the two supporting bristles of the lower lip it spreads the 

 paraglossa of the bee apart and in this way it not only prevents the drawing back 

 of the tongue, but it also holds the basal part of the tongue open. This occurs 

 for the reason that beneath the base of the tongue the external opening of the 

 canal from the salivary gland is found. Through this gland opening, because 

 of the irritation of the unusual penetrating body and the unusual saliva, saliva 

 is poured forth reflexively, which the Braula sucks up. * * * Braula is there- 

 fore a parasite which has become adapted to the organism of the queenbee and 

 is a burden and torture of the first order to them. 



In the examination of Braula from Maryland, smears were made 

 of the contents of the alimentary canal, and in one individual 11 

 peculiarly shaped pollen grains were found, while in the alimentary 

 canals of the bees from which the Braula were taken pollen from the 

 same plant source (unidentified) were abundant. Whether pollen is an 

 important constituent of the diet of Braula is not known and it may 

 have entered merely in association with liquid food taken in the 



