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Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
other. The writer had often noticed these specks in the hives at Cedara, but 
had failed to detect their true nature until Mr. Harris suggested that they 
should be mounted in xylol for examination under the microscope. The 
xylol dissolves the adherent wax from the white specks, clears them, and 
renders their examination a simple matter. 
The eggs measure about - 85 mm. x *56 mm. and are dead white in 
colour (Fig. 2). They are oval in shape, and have on either side a flattened 
wing-like expansion, marked with a delicate, raised reticulation. They seem 
to be deposited in a haphazard manner over the brood combs, some being 
Fig. 1. — JBraula caeca, Mtzscb. x 25. 
placed on the caps of the cells containing sealed brood, others inside empty 
cells glued to the sides and bottoms of the cells, and still others on the tops 
of the partitions between the cells. Some of the eggs were found to 
contain fully developed embryos (Fig. 2) and their dipterous nature was 
unmistakably revealed. Thus the writer's attention was turned at once to 
Braula caeca, the only dipterous parasite present in the hives. A number 
of the lice were caught, and carefully dissected under a binocular dissecting 
microscope. In three or four of the females examined a fully formed egg 
was found in the common ovarian duct (Fig. 9, cod), and these eggs were 
obviously identical with those found on the brood combs. The appearance, 
size, shape and markings were exactly identical, so that there could be no 
possible doubt as to their identity. The characteristic wings with the 
