JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 17 
344 
A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Pittsburg) 
vol. 64, p. 1985, states that, “the toxic effects of the fluoride ion is similar to the 
oxalate ion. Intravenous injections of a dog in dosages ranging from 0.05 to 0.1 
of sodium fluoride per kilogram of weight were fatal. The Massachusetts State 
Board of Health Monthly Bulletin (vol. 6, pp. 341-343) reports one death and several 
cases of poisoning from the mistaken use of insect powders, containing sodium fluoride. 
Several samples were anaylzed and found to contain from 16 to 62 per cent of sodium 
fluoride, but bore no poison label. The Journal Pharm. Chem. (vol. 21 (1920), pp. 
5-8) gives a record of the poisoning of seven persons who had partaken of pastry, in 
the preparation of which sodium fluoride was by mistake used instead of bicarbonate 
of soda. The amount taken by each individual ranged from 0.228 to 0.456 gm. 
Nausea and vomiting followed, the attack lasting from three to twelve hours, followed 
by 36 hours of weakness. The giving of milk aided in recovery. Calcium lactate or 
other soluble calcium salts may be given as an antidote, —dosage 1 gm. (15 grains) 
or a few spoonsful of lime water may be substituted. 
E. R. DeOng, University of California 
Acarapis woodi in Czecho-slovakia. Since the discovery of A car apis woodi by 
Rennie in 1920 in connection with the Isle of Wight disease, observations have been 
made in several countries on this species. The species is given by Rennie and his 
associates as the cause of the above mentioned disease of adult honeybees, and this 
opinion is generally accepted, this being the first definitely recorded case of a mite 
being pathogenic on an insect. In Switzerland, Morgenthaler found this species, or 
one which can not be distinguished from it, on the outside of honeybees that had died 
during the winter, no evidence of disease having been noted previously. Since 
that time, however, a number of instances of disease of adult bees have been located 
in French Switzerland, in which cases the tracheae of the diseased bees were filled 
with this species of mite. The pertinent literature on this subject is recorded in U. 
S. Dept, of Agric. Circulars 218 and 287. 
Last May a letter was received from Rev. Ivan F. Kitzberger, editor of a leading 
bee-journal in Prague, stating that Acarapis woodi had been found in Czecho-slovakia 
(see pp. 21-22, Circ. 287), the identification having been made by Mr. Ctibor Blattny, 
a specialist on mites located at the Zoological Institute, Prague. Several other species 
of mites, both larvae and adults, were identified from material collected on combs 
which had been removed from the hives for some time. The Isle of Wight disease 
seems to be unknown in Czecho-slovakia. 
An.inquiry to Rev. Mr. Kitzberger for more information brings some rather im. 
portant and most interesting reports from him and also directly from Mr. Blattny- 
Kitzbei'ger reports in a letter dated December 28,1923, that Acarapis woodi was found 
living free on empty combs (containing pollen) which had not been in a colony of bees 
for at least a year. These had been stored in a moist cellar but for three or four 
months had been placed in a warmer, dry room. In a personal interview with Mr. 
Kitzberger in January 1924, Mr. Willis J. Nolan, of this laboratory, learned that in all 
ten specimens of Acarapis were thus located. These combs were somewhat infested 
with the greater wax moth also. In a letter dated October 24, 1923, Mr. Blattrn^ 
states that in his opinion Acarapis woodi is normally a saprophyte, which perhaps be¬ 
cause of some change in environmental conditions has in some cases become parasitic. 
With these two letters there came a microscopic slide on which was mounted the 
