The Occurrence of Diseases of Adult Bees. 



zoan parasite of the alimentary tract of adult honeybees, described by 

 Zander (22, 23) in 1909. This protozoan has been found to be 

 widely distributed in the United States and elsewhere throughout 

 the world, without causing the serious conditions described for the 

 Isle of Wight disease, and for this reason some doubt was cast on the 

 results of the English workers in this field. Furthermore, the organ- 

 ism was found not to be present in all colonies suffering from Isle of 

 Wight disease. Later Anderson and Rennie (1, 2) called these 

 results in question, without, however, giving the cause of the disease, 

 but Nosema apis came to be looked upon as a relatively harmless 

 parasite. In December, 1920, Rennie and his associates announced 

 that the Isle of Wight disease is caused by the parasitic mite Tarson- 

 emus woodi Rennie, and the results of their work were published 

 early in 1921 (9, 17, 18, 19, 21). Later the mite was placed in a new 

 genus, Acarapis (figs. 1 and 2) by Hirst (10). 



Search, for Isle of Wight disease in the United States. — During the 

 period when the Isle of Wight disease was attributed to Nosema apis 

 there seemed to be no cause for alarm in the United States, but when 

 this theory was disproven and another organism was given as the 

 cause of the trouble, fears regarding the introduction of the disease 

 were renewed. On the receipt of the published results of the work 

 by Rennie (18), steps were at once taken to determine whether 

 Acarapis woodi is present in the United States. Requests were sent 

 out widely to beekeepers, asking that they send to the Bureau of 

 Entomology samples of any adult bees which showed any unusual 

 symptoms or any disease. During the summer of 1921 there were 

 no reports from any part of the United States that indicated any 

 serious diseases of adult bees. During the summer 200 samples were 

 received, all of which were examined for all known causes of disease 

 among adult bees. The examinations for the mites were made by 

 J. B. Moorman, and A. P. Sturtevant examined the bees for Nosema 

 apis. Certain samples were examined for arsenic, when there seemed 

 reason to suspect poisoning as the cause of death, this work being 

 done by the Bureau of Chemistry. Table 1, prepared by Mr. 

 Sturtevant, gives the results of the examinations : 



Table 1. — Results of examinations of adult bees. 



State or country. 



Counties. 



Towns. 



Nega- 

 tive. 



Nosema 

 apis. 



Not ex- 

 amined 



for 

 Nosema. 



Arsenic. 



Total. 



Alabama. 



2 

 1 



13 

 2 

 1 

 1 

 2 

 2 



2 

 1 



16 

 3 

 1 

 1 

 2 

 2 



2 







2 





l 









15 4 + J? 







20 





3 2 

 2 2 







5 



Connecticut 







4 





2 



1 

 2 









2 



Florida 



1 

 







2 



Georgia 







2 



