822 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
BEE-KILLER. ITS HABITS ANB BESTRTJCTIVENESS. 
sitive. Here it is hard and destitute of feeling—a large, tapering, horn¬ 
like tube, inclosing a sharp lance or spear-pointed tongue to dart out from 
its end and cut a wound for it to enter, this end, moreover, being fringed 
and bearded around with stiff bristles to bend backward and thus hold it 
securely in the wound into which it is crowded. The proboscis of tho 
horse flies is tormenting, but this of the Asilus flies is torturing. That 
presses its soft cushion-like lips to the wound to suck thb blood from it; 
this crowds its hard prickly knob into the wound to pump the juices there¬ 
from. It is said these Asilus flies sometimes attack cattle and horses, but 
other writers disbelieve this. Should any of* our Nebraska friends see one 
of these bee-killers alighting upon and actually wounding horses or cattle, 
we hope they will inform us of the fact, that this mooted point may be defin¬ 
itely settled. Certain it is that these flies nourish themselves principally 
upon other insects, attacking all that they are sufficiently large and strong 
to overpower. Even the hard crustaceous shell with which the beetles are 
covered fails to protect them from the butchery of these barbarians. And 
formidably as the bee is equipped for punishing any intruder which ven¬ 
tures to molest it, it here finds itself overmatched and its sting powerless 
against the horny proboscis of its murderer. These flies appear to be par¬ 
ticularly prone to attack the l>"es. Robineau Pesvoidy states that he had 
repeatedly seen the Asilus diadema, ar European species somewhat smaller 
than this of Nebraska, flying with a bee in its hold. But it probably does 
not relish these more than it does other insects. We presume it to be 
because it finds them in such abundance, as enables it to make a meal upon 
them most readily, and with the least exertion, that these Nebraska flics 
fall upon the b<jes and the rose bugs’. And so large as they are, a single 
one will require perhaps a hundred bees per day for its nourishment. If 
these flies are common, therefore, they will inevitably occasion great losses 
to the bee keepers in that part of our country. 
No feasible mode of destroying this fly or protecting the bees from it at 
present occurs to me. Indeed such an accurate knowledge of the particu¬ 
lar habits of this species as we do not at present possess, is necessary, to 
show in what manner it can be most successfully combatted. 
Since the foregoing account was written, Mi’. Thompson has favored us 
with another communication, givingsomemostinterestingobservntions upon 
the habits and destructiveness of this insect, which we here append in his 
own words. He says, My attention was first called to this fly destroying 
the honey bee by a little boy, a son of P. C. Utty, Esq., of this place. 
After sending you the specimens I watched ils proceedings and habits with 
much care, and find that, in addition to the honey bee and rose bugs, 
it devours many' other kinds of beetles, bugs and flies, some of which are 
as large again as itself. It appears to be in the months of Juno and July 
that it is abroad upon the wing, destroying the bees. None of them are 
now (August 2d) to be seen. When in pursuit of its prey it makes quito 
rapid dashes, always capturing the bee on the wing. When once secured 
by wrapping its legs about it, pressing it tightly to its own body, it imme¬ 
diately seeks a bush or tall weed, upon which it alights and commences 
