Abstract
LONDON. Association of Economic Biologists, February 24.—Sir David Prain, president, in the chair.—J. Rennie; The present position of bee-disease research. There is a general similarity of symptoms in all adult bee diseases. With the recognition of the parasite, Nosema apis, in association with bee disease there has been at the same time a failure to appreciate a preponderance of cases of disease from which this organism was absent. Recent work at Aberdeen has shown that there are at least three adult bee diseases of importance prevalent in this country—all of which have hitherto been called Isle of Wight Disease. Besides Nosema disease, there are Acarine disease and Bee Paralysis. At the present time Nosema disease is less common than Acarine disease, but appears to be maintained to some extent by the importation of foreign bees, a proportion of which contain the parasite, Nosema apis. Acarine disease is the more formidable malady; its causal agent is a Tarsonemid mite which breeds in the thoracic trachea and feeds on the blood of the bee. An important feature in this disease, which has hitherto rendered control measures difficult, is the long period of infestation while the mite is being established in the colony, during which time the presence of the parasite is unsuspected. The systematic examination for this parasite of all stocks should be the first step in control. Bee paralysis, described by the Swedish investigator Turesson as an intoxication due to phenolic acids developed in the combs and pollen by the growth of various moulds, has also been recognised in Great Britain.—J. Rennie: Polyhedral disease of tipula species. Larvæ of Tipula paludosa, the fat body cells of which contain polyhedral bodies in the nuclei, do not complete their development; they die before pupation. This affection, known in various Lepidopterous larvae, has not hitherto been observed in Diptera. The polyhedra appear to be developed in association with a virus. Infection by feeding is readily produced, and polyhedral bodies develop within the fat body cells in some six or seven days.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 109, 396–399 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109396a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109396a0