nd his ways mysterious," and go on studying and collecting
facts, leaving to his successors the more difficult task, but greater
joy of discovering the cause and reason of things that are but a puzzle
to the philosophers of this day.

The larva of Nomada may be known from those of its host, by its
slenderer body and smaller head, while the body is smoother and more
cylindrical. Both sexes of Nomada imbricata and N. pulchella were found
by Mr. Emerton, the former in both the Andrena and Halictus nests, and
both were found in a single Andrena nest.

[Illustration: Wood Wasp.]

CHAPTER III.

THE PARASITES OF THE HONEY BEE.

Very few bee-keepers are probably aware how many insect parasites infest
the Honey bee. In our own literature we hear almost nothing of this
subject, but in Europe much has been written on bee parasites. From Dr.
Edward Assmuss' little work on the "Parasites of the Honey Bee," we
glean some of the facts now presented, and which cannot fail to interest
the general reader as well as the owner of bees.

The study of the habits of animal parasites has of late gained much
attention among naturalists, and both the honey and wild bees afford
good examples of the singular relation between the host and the
parasites which live upon it. Among insects generally, there are certain
species which devour the contents of the egg of the victim. Others, and
this is the most common mode of parasitism, attack the insect in its
larva state; others, in the pupa state, and still others in the perfect,
or imago state. Dr. Leidy has shown that the wood-devouring species of
beetle, Passalus cornutus, and some Myriopods, or "thousand legs," are,
in some cases, tenanted by myriads of microscopic plants and worms which
luxuriate in the alimentary canal, while the "caterpillar-fungus"
attacks sickly caterpillars, filling out their bodies, and sending out
shoots into the air, so that the insect looks as if transformed into a
vegetable.

The Ichneumon flies, of which there are undoubtedly several thousand
species in this country, are the most common insect parasites. Next to
these are the different species of Tachina and its allied genera. These,
like Ichneumons, live in the bodies of their hosts, consuming the fatty
parts, and finishing their transformations just as the exhausted host
is ready to die, issue from their bodies as flies, closely resembling
the common housefly.

A small fly has been found in Europe to b