29 



Verdauungskanal der Biene bei der Maikrankheit in Mitleidenschaft 

 gezogen ist, sodass in demselhen — wegen Aufhörens der Muskel- 

 funktion eine Störung eintritt und sie den prall angefullten Darni nicht 

 mehr sein Inhalts entleeren können.» Follenius claims the pollen 

 lo be the cause of bee-paralysis. While it cannot be denied thal 

 traces of phenolic substances may occur in pollen from plants 

 secreting ethereal oils the arguments of Zander are sufficient to 

 disprove the pollen theory. The theory of Bennemann and Hubnek 

 that Mucor Mucedo causes paralysis is likewise in need of some 

 modification. From the statemenls of these workers one gets the 

 impression that the organism in qnestion killed the bees by some 

 sort af parasitism. This is of conrse wholly ineonceivable. As the 

 spores of the fungus, however, freely germinate within the body of 

 the bees (see above) one has only to wait a few days after the insect 

 bas been poisoned with the spores of Mucor to see the fnngus break 

 throngh the abdominal wall covering the body with its mycelinm 

 and spore masses. 



4. Fungous growth in bees and bee-hives. 



That the presence of monlds in the bee-hive is a matter of common 

 occurrence cannot possibly have escaped the attention of practical 

 bee-keepers. More particularly is this true of colonies that have 

 been wintered in hives poorly constructed or otherwise under con- 

 ditions favoring the growth and spread of monlds within the hive. 

 Of this we shall have more to say låter on. 



The number of fungi isolated and experimented with could easily 

 have been donbled bnt the almost constant occurrence of Mucor 

 Macedo and species of the genus Penicillium in bee-hives made it 

 desireable first of all to test the toxicity of these species rather than 

 to investigate the behavior of monlds only sporadically found in 

 hives. Nevertheless, exlended investigations of these latter ones may 

 prove to be of some value. Only the pathogenicity of those moulds 

 knovvn to cause mycosis in bees has, hitherto, been considered in 

 books dealing with bee-diseases. Howard (16) was the first one to 

 call attention to aspergillosis in bees calling the disease »pickled 

 brood» or »white fungous disease». The fungus, Aspergillus pollinis, 

 attacked the larvae and pupae and transformed them into hard 

 mummies of whitish color. The disease has låter on been identified 

 iu Germany by Maaszkn (see Bahk) and by Bahr (3) in Denmark. 



