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Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
motions of its feet, armed with bent claws, produce a tickling sensation 
perhaps disagreeable to its host, but at least provoking some movement of 
the buccal organs, which slightly open and release a small drop of honey, 
which the louse at once licks up." 
Although the present writer has never witnessed the feeding of these lice, 
he has been able to prove that their food consists of honey. In the study of 
the anatomy of this insect several individuals were dissected which had the 
crop distended with a colourless fluid, and when this fluid was applied to 
the tongue it was proved unmistakably to be honey. No solid matter was 
ever found in the intestine. 
Summary and Conclusions. 
1. Br aula caeca is oviparous, not pupiparous as was hitherto supposed. 
2. The eggs are deposited on the brood combs in the hives, hatch out 
into typical muscid larvae which make their way into cells containing young 
bee larvae. 
3. The larvae feed on food supplied to the brood by the nurse bees, and 
beyond robbing the bee larvae of a little of their food do no harm. 
4. The larvae pupate inside the cells beside the bee pupae ; they emerge 
before the bees do and make their way at once on to the bodies of their 
hosts. 
5. The adults feed on honey, probably supplied to them by their hosts. 
6. Although Braula is not pupiparous, it shows many marked resem- 
blances to the Hippoboscidae, and the family Braulidae should probably be 
placed between the Muscidae and the Hippoboscidae, not between the latter 
and the Streblidae as at present. 
Bibliography. 
(1) Sharp, D.— ' Cambridge Natural History/ Pt. II, p. 520. 
(2) Comstock, J. H. — ' Manual for the Study of Insects,' 1917, p. 489. 
(3) Cowan, T. — 'British Bee Keepers' Guide Book/ 
(4) Root, A. I. — 'A. B.C. and X.Y.Z. of Bee Keeping/ 1919, p. 256. 
