256 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



1-2 EDWARD VII., A. 1902 



puncture, as they did not do so, although they kept crawling over it continuously. 



The mean weight of each of these two hives on the 7th September, when the ex- 

 periment was begun, was 27 pounds. At the end of the experiment, four weeks later, 

 each had lost 3£ pounds. The mean weight of the two hives in each of which were 

 left five frames with brood and honey, was at the beginning of the experiment, 34 J 

 pounds. The mean loss for each of these hives was 2j pounds. 



B. — Fruit exposed in the open air, hung from the branches of a tree in the apiary 

 inclosure. 



In this experiment two sets of whole fruit were used, one being dipped in honey, 

 the other punctured as before. The bees worked exactly as in the hives and with the 

 same results. 



C. — Fruit exposed on shelves in a workshop, adjoining the honey-house. 



This, like the preceding experiment, consisted of dipped fruit and punctured fruit. 

 Although the bees did not work so freely inside this building as they did on the fruit 

 hung outside on the trees, and that in the hives, still the results were practically the 

 same in every case. " 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Question 1. — One of my hives is full of webs and grubs. What is the remedy ? 



Answer. — The grubs are the caterpillars of the Bee Moth (Galleria mellonella, 

 L.), more properly called the Wax Moth, the most troublesome of the enemies of the 



bee-keeper. Fig. 19 shows 

 it in its different stages. 

 The full grown caterpillars 

 or ' grubs ' shown at 19a, 

 natural size, are very ac- 

 tive, of a dirty white col- 

 our, when full grown about 

 an inch in length. They 

 sometimes occur in large 

 numbers in neglected hives, 

 and eat long galleries 

 through the comb, feeding on the wax and the bee bread in the cells, destroying also 

 any young bees that come in their way, and finals driving the colony from the hive. 

 The eggs of the Wax Moth are very small, oval, glistening white at first, but assume 

 a pink colour before hatching. They are inserted by the mother moth into any crack 

 or crevice in or about the hive, by means of a long tube-like ovipositor. As soon as 

 the young caterpillars hatch they begin to spin, as a protection, a silken tube in which 

 they live during their whole larval life. This tube is enlarged and extended as they 

 progress. When full grown they leave these tubes and creep into a crevice or corner, 

 generally near the bottom of the hive, where they spin a tough cocoon (Fig. 19b) of 

 white silk mixed with pellets of black excrement. The pupa (Fig. 19c) may be found 

 inside the cocoon. The perfect insect is figured of natural size, a female with wings 

 expanded, at d, and a male at rest at e. There are normally two broods of this moth 

 in the season, the first appearing in May and the second, usually much more numerous, 

 in August. In infested combs brought into a heated office for studj*, the moths ap- 

 peared at the end of March and through April well into May. The moths are of vari- 

 ous tints of dusky gray and differ a good deal, some being much lighter in colour than 

 others, and some specimens of both sexes being of a more ruddy brown. They are not 

 easily seen when at rest, as in colour they resemble very closely old weathered wood, a 

 resemblance which is heightened by numerous dark spots on the wings. The peculiar 

 chape of the wings, as is shown in the figure above, will easily enable any one to iden- 

 tify this insect. The moths are about three-quarters of an inch long, and when at 



Fig. IP. — The AVax Moth : a, caterpillar ; b, co- 

 coon ; d, female moth ; c, male moth at rest. 



