Isle of Wight Disease in Hive Bees. 47 
could fly. A number of those which “crawled” were sent to Dr Annie Porter, 
together with a description of the symptoms, and she reported as follows :— 
“Every bee contained spores of Nosema.” This was in July 1913. The 
crawling referred to here was not typical of Isle of Wight disease, and 
lasted for quite a short time. Also the number involved was very limited, 
and consisted entirely of young Italian bees. At intervals during June, weak 
and aged bees, both blacks and Italians, had been picked up in front of this 
hive and examined on the spot, by one of us (J.A.). These were full of spores 
of Nosema, but none were found in the young Italians examined at the same 
time. 
A neighbouring queenless black stock was now united with this Ligurian 
stock, and soon there was a prosperous colony with plenty of brood, worker 
and drone. On 12th September 1913, bees taken at random off the frames 
were examined and no spores of Nosema were seen. During the winter of 
1913-14 frequent samples were taken, and a large proportion of the bees 
examined were found heavily infected with spores. Yet those bees were quite 
active and healthy and could fly perfectly. | 
On 19th December 1913, the old queen died and stock G9 continued 
queenless and broodless for over three months. On 28th March 1914, we 
added a small lot of Italians which had been found starving in another hive. 
The queen was a Penna Italian imported in 1913. Bees of this stock were 
found to be heavily infected with Nosema on 2nd June. ; 
When we examined the stock on 20th June 1914, it was quite prosperous 
with a good show of brood. The weather was wet and cold, and diligent 
search in front of the hive resulted in the finding of eight benumbed bees. 
Seven of these were full of spores of Nosema. Eight bees were also picked 
off the combs at random, and three of these contained spores of Nosema. 
Again, on 13th July, one bee out of six examined contained an abundance of 
spores. This stock is still alive at the present time. | 
NosEMA INFECTION EXPERIMENTS. 
(a) Infection of a full Stock of Bees with Nosema apis. 
On 11th July 1914, a small lot of Cyprian bees which were known 
previously to harbour Nosema were placed in confinement. On 28th July 
most had died, and the remainder appeared weak. Four were examined, two 
live and two dead. All contained Mosema spores in quantity. The whole 
lot of bees, ninety-one in number, were mashed with honey, and fed to a full 
stock of bees at Achmore, Lewis. These were ordinary black bees imported 
