"During the last spring a lady bee-keeper of Connecticut discovered these mites in her hives while investigating to learn the cause of their rapid depletion. She had noticed that the colonies were greatly reduced in number of bees, and upon close observation found that the diseased or failing colonies were covered with the mites. So small are these pests that a score of them can take possession of a single bee and not be crowded for room either. The lady states that the bees roll and scratch in their vain attempts to rid themselves of these annoying stick-tights, and finally, worried out, fall to the bottom of the hive, or go forth to die on the outside. Mites are not true insects, but are the most degraded of spiders. The sub-class _Arachnida_ are at once recognized by their eight legs. The order of mites (_Accorina_), which includes the wood-tick, cattle-tick, etc., and mites, are quickly told from the higher orders--true spiders and scorpions--by their rounded bodies, which appear like mere sacks, with little appearance of segmentation, and their small, obscure heads. The mites alone, of all the _Arachinida_, pass through a marked metamorphosis. Thus the young mite has only six legs, while the mature form has eight. The bee mite is very small, not more than one-fiftieth of an inch long. The female is slightly longer than the male, and somewhat transparent. The color is black, though the legs and more transparent areas of the female appear yellowish. All the legs are fine jointed, slightly hairy, and each tipped with two hooks or claws." As to remedies, the Professor says that as what would kill the mites would doubtless kill the bees, makes the question a difficult one. He suggests, however, the frequent changing of the bees from one hive to another, after which the emptied hives should be thoroughly scalded. He thinks this course of treatment, persisted in, would effectually clean them out. * * * * * CRYSTALLIZATION OF HONEY. _To the Editor of the Scientific American_: Seeing in your issue of October 13, 1883, an article on "Crystallization in Extracted Honey," I beg leave to differ a little with the gentleman. I have handled honey as an apiarist and dealer for ten years, and find by actual experience that it has no tendency to crystallize in warm weather; but on the contrary it will crystallize in cold weather, and the colder the weather the harder the honey will get. I have had colonies of bees starve when there was plenty of honey in the hives; it was in extreme cold weather, there was not enough animal heat in the bees to keep the honey from solidifying, hence the starvation of the colonies. To-day I removed with a thin paddle sixty pounds of honey from a large stone jar where it had remained over one year. Last winter it was so solid from crystallization, it could not be cut with a knife; in fact, I broke a large, heavy knife in attempting to remove a small quantity.