THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
143 
and partly perhaps from the difficulty of 
detecting a single young worm in the 
body of a bee, my experiments were quite 
unsuccessful. 
“ I had hoped to have thrown some 
light upon this question, and also upon 
the metamorphosis, by obtaining some 
specimens in autumn and winter. Up 
to the present lime, however, I have 
found them only in May, June and 
July. This is partly perhaps owing to 
the fact that large females are most 
easily obtainable in these months ; and it 
is unlucky for me that the last two years 
have been very unfavourable to bees; 
1860 indeed so much so that it is said 
(‘ Zoologist,’ September, I860,) to have 
been the worst year for Hymenoptera 
since 1828. 
“ I have, however, examined eight 
large females of B. lucorum in August 
and three in October; two of B. lerrestris 
in August, two in September, and two in 
October; if therefore, at this season, the 
Sphcerulari were as numerous and as 
large as in spring and summer, I should 
almost certainly have found some. If, 
on the other hand, they were quite small, 
they might easily be overlooked. 
“ From all these facts I am inclined to 
think that humble-bees, when infested 
with Sphcerulari, live for awhile as if 
nothing were the matter; and that only 
when the young Sphcerulari , or the ma- 
jority of them, are hatched, the parasites 
appropriate to themselves so much of the 
nourishment belonging to the bee, that 
the latter becomes seriously incommoded 
by their presence. As, from the misap- 
propriation of its blood, the bee becomes 
weaker and weaker, it would probably, 
feeling its end approaching, crawl into 
some long grass or other place of con- 
cealment. 
“ As soou as the bee is dead the young 
Sphcerulari probably work their way out 
of it, and immediately begin to look out 
for a new victim. Those who are so 
fortunate as to meet with a large female 
or queen may enter it, as young Gordii 
have been seen to enter other insects, 
but do not, in all probability, increase 
much in size at first. This I infer, 
partly because I have not found Sphceru- 
lari in autumn, but principally because 
they would, in this case, be much less 
injurious to the bee than if they imme- 
diately began to increase in size. When 
the spring commences the female Sphce- 
rulari probably begins to grow rapidly, 
and soon lays eggs. I am inclined to 
think that young Sphcerulari also occur 
in workers, and that I have overlooked 
them on account of their minuteness ; 
since there seems no reason to suppose 
that the young Sphcerulari have sufficient 
intelligence to distinguish queen bees 
from workers, or even from other in- 
sects.” 
INSTABILITY : IS IT REALLY SO 
BAD ? 
To the Editor of the * Intelligencer 
Sir, — You have lately given some of 
us some very hard knocks on the sub- 
ject of instability and want of perse- 
verance, and the truth of them makes 
them all the more severe; but still there 
is something to be said on the other 
side. Do you think it desirable that 
every one who begins to collect butter- 
flies should become another Stephens ? 
Would you have every one confine his 
attention to one branch of Natural 
History till he knows all about it? Do 
you consider the time spent in collecting 
lost time if the collection be given up ? 
It seems to me, on the contrary, that, 
looking at the connexion between the 
natural sciences and the various branches 
of Natural History, which day by day 
becomes more and more intimate, and 
also at the fact that collecting gives a 
