STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
823 
BEE-KILLER ITS TENACITY OP LIFE. 
devouring its prey by eating (piercing) a hole into the body and in a short 
time entirely consuming it (sucking out the fluids and soft internal viscera) 
and leaving only the hard outer skin or shell of the bee. Upon the ground 
beneath some favorable perch for the fly near the apiary, hundreds of these 
shells of bees are found accumulated in a single day—whether the work of 
one fly or of several I am not able to say. I have just returned from a pro¬ 
fessional tour through the northern portion of our Territory, taking Nur¬ 
sery orders; and in many things this business and the apiary are closely 
connected. In no case have I found a hive of bees that has thrown off a 
swarm this season! The dry weather, bad pasture and other reasons were 
assigned as the cause. But many persons, since they have found this fly 
at his work of destruction, now believe it to be the cause of the non¬ 
swarming of their bees; and I am led to the same opinion. I have only 
to add further, that this Bee-killer delights in hot, dry weather, and is very 
invulnerable and tenacious of life. I have observed the honey bee and 
also the hornet sting it repeatedly, but with no other effect than to cause it 
to tighten its hold upon them. Once when I forced the assassin to release 
his prey, he gave me such a wound in the hand as has learned me ever 
since to be cautious how I interfered with him. He will live an hour with 
a pin thrust through his body which has been dipped in the solution of 
Cyanuret of .Potassium. 
