We have already spoken of caution as to comb honey and frames of comb (page 216), and so need not speak further of them. BEE KILLER--_Asilus Missouriensis_, Riley. This is a two-winged fly, of the predacious family Asilidæ, which attacks, and takes captive the bee and then feeds upon its fluids. It is confined to the southern part of our country. The fly (Fig. 108) has a long, pointed abdomen, strong wings, and is very powerful. I have seen an allied species attack and overcome the powerful tiger-beetle, whereupon I took them both with my net, and now have them pinned, as they were captured, in our College cabinet. These flies delight in the warm sunshine, are very quick on the wing, and are thus not easily captured. It is to be hoped that they will not become very numerous. If they should, I hardly know how they could be kept from their evil work. Frightening them, or catching with a net might be tried, yet these methods would irritate the bees, and need to be tried before they are recommended. I have received specimens of this fly from nearly every Southern State. There are very similar flies North, belonging to the same genus, but as yet we have no account of their attacking bees, though such a habit might easily be acquired, and attacks here would not be surprising. [Illustration: Fig. 108.] [Illustration: Fig. 109. _Imago._ _Larva._] BEE-LOUSE--_Branla Cœca_, Nitsch. This louse (Fig. 109) is a wingless Dipteron, and one of the uniques among insects. It is a blind, spider-like parasite, and serves as a very good connecting link between insects and spiders, or, still better, between the Diptera, where it belongs, and the Hemiptera, which contains the bugs and most of the lice. It assumes the semi-pupa state almost as soon as hatched, and strangest of all, is, considering the size of the bee on which it lives, and from which it sucks its nourishment, enormously large. Two or three, and sometimes even more, (the new Encyclopedia Britannica says 50 or 100), are often found on a single bee. When we consider their great size we cannot wonder that they very soon devitalize the bees. These, as yet, have done little damage, except in the south of Continental Europe. The fact that they have not become naturalized in the northern part of the Continent, England or America, would go to show that there is something inimical to their welfare in our climate, especially as they are constantly being introduced, coming as hangers-on to our imported bees. Within a year I have received them from no less than three sources--twice from New York and once from Pennsylvania--each time taken from bees just received from Italy. The only way that I could suggest to rid bees of them would be to make the entrance to the hive small, so that as the bees enter, they would be scraped off. IMPORTANT SUGGESTION.