INSECTS. 127 



slant supply of food near home, more often escape than small and 

 weak ones. When the moth-worms have established themselves 

 in a hive, their presence is made known to us by the little frag- 

 ments of wax and the black grains scattered by them over the floor. 

 Means should then be taken, without delay, to dislodge -the depre- 

 dators and invigorate the swarm. Kollar. states that there is but 

 one sure method of clearing bee-hives of the moth, and this is to 

 look for and destroy the caterpillars or moth-worms and the chrysa- 

 lids ; and he advises that the hives should be examined, for this 

 purpose, once a week, and that all the webs and cocoons, with the 

 insects in them, should be taken out and destroyed. At all events, 

 the examination ought to be made every year, early in September, 

 when the cocoons will be found in greater numbers than at any 

 other time, and should be carefully removed and burned. The 

 winged moths are very fond of sweets ; and if shallow vessels, con- 

 taining a mixture of honey or sugar, with vinegar and water, are 

 placed near the bee-house in the evening, the moths will get into 

 them and be drowned. In this way great numbers may be caught 

 every night. Several kinds of hives and bee-houses have been con- 

 trived and recommended, for the purpose of keeping out the bee- 

 moth ; but it does not appear that any of them entirely supersede 

 the necessity for the measures above recommended. 



GRAIN MOTHS. The various kinds of destructive moths, found 

 in houses, stores, barns, granaries, breweries, and mills, are mostly 

 very small insects ; the largest of them, when arrived at maturity, 

 expanding their wings only about eight tenths of an inch. The 

 ravages of some of these little creatures are too well known to need 

 a particular description. Among them may be mentioned the grain- 

 moth (T. grundld), with some others belonging to a group, which 

 may be called Tineans (TINEAD^E), and the Angoumois grain-moth 

 (Anacampsis cerealella,) both of which are to be included among the 

 Yponomeutians. 



Stored grain is exposed to much injury from the depredations 

 of two little moths, in Europe, and is attacked in the same way, 

 and apparently by the same insects, in this country. 



The European grain-moth (Tinea granella), in its perfected state, 

 is a winged insect, between three and four tenths of an inch long 

 from the head to the tip of its wings, and expands six tenths of an 

 inch. It has a whitish tuft on its forehead ; its long and narrow 

 wings cover its back like a sloping roof, are a little turned up be- 

 hind, and are edged with a wide fnnge. Its fore-wings are glossy 



