150 ENEMIES OF BEES. 



gain access to the interior, and ultimately ruin the 

 hive. But this takes place only in winter, when the 

 bees are languid or partially torpid, and when there is 

 a lack of vigilance on the part of their owner. A still 

 more formidable enemy is the wax-moth, ( Tinea Mel- 

 lonella, PI. VIII. fig. 2,) of who se ravages Feburier has 

 given a long and minute detail. This insect is ex- 

 tremely alert in discovering any crevice by which it 

 may penetrate into the hive, and easily effects its pur- 

 pose if the bees are not numerous, and there is no 

 centinel on the watch. They lay their eggs in the 

 sides of the hive, or in the rubbish on the floor, or 

 even in the combs which are farthest from the entrance. 

 Every egg contains an insect, which, in due time be- 

 comes a moth. It appears first under the form of a 

 worm or larva, and it is in this stage that it commits 

 its ravages, extending its galleries or covered ways 

 throughout every quarter of the interior, and devouring, 

 not honey or wax, neither of which substances seems 

 to be its proper food, but the exuviae of bee nymphs, 

 and, very probably, the nymphs themselves. Certain 

 it is that the population of a hive infested by these 

 destructive creatures, diminishes with such rapidity as 

 leads to the conclusion that they prey upon tlie brood 

 itself as well as on its exuviae. The bees give ground 

 step by step, until, being greatly reduced in numbers, 

 they at last utterly abandon the hive. Another moth 

 of a kind dangerous to bees is mentioned by Huber, 

 namely, the Sphynx Atropos, or Death's-head Hawk- 

 moth, so called from its having on its thorax a mark 

 somewhat resembling a death's-head (See PL IX.) 



