222 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



tiny insects ; but he confesses he never saw such 

 contests.* When the caterpillar has eaten its way 

 into the interior of the grain, it feeds on the farina, 

 taking care not to gnaw the skin nor even to throw 

 out its excrements, so that, except the little hole, 

 scarcely discernible, the grain appears quite sound. 

 When it has eaten all the farina, it spins itself a case 

 of silk within the now hollow grain, and changes to a 

 pupa in November.t 



Two other caterpillars of a different family, the 

 honeycomb-moth {Galleria cereana^ Fabi?.), and the 

 honey-moth {G. alvearia^ Fabr.), the first having 

 square, and the second rounded wings,J do very con- 

 siderable damage to the hives of bees. The moths 

 of both, according to Reaumur, appear about the 

 end of June or beginning of July ; and when in 

 danger they run rather than fly, gliding with such 

 celerity that they can easily elude the vigilance of 

 the bees, which, indeed, if we may trust Swammer- 

 dam, never attack them, nor prevent their entrance 

 into the hives, unless they chance to brush against 

 them in their passage. But Reaumur actually saw 

 the bees pursue one, though without success. It 

 becomes easy for a moth, at all events, to lay eggs 

 among the combs ; or, as Key says, at the entrance 

 of the hive : this writer adds, " she spins a close 

 and strong web to defend the young ;"§ which is 

 impossible, as no insect, subsequent to its larva state, 

 can spin. 



The caterpillar of the first species, " wherever it 

 passes," says Swammerdam, " gnaws round holes 

 through the waxen cells, one caterpillar sometimes 

 breaking open and destroying fifty or sixty cells. 



* See Insect Architecture, p. 231. 



f Reaumur, Mem., vol. ii. p. 186, &c. 



X Stephens's Catalogue, vol. ii. p. 213. 



^ Keys, Treatise on Bees. p. 178, edit. 1814. 



