THE BEE. 



filth or ordure that may remain, or any pieces of wax that may 

 have fallen in when the young bee broke through its cocoon. But 

 they never attempt to remove the silk lining of the cell spun by 

 the larva in its first transformation, because that, instead of being 

 a nuisance, gives increased solidity and ornament to the cell. 



162. Notwithstanding the amiable character and excellent poli- 

 tical organisation of the bees, these little people have numerous 

 enemies, with some of whom they are often compelled to wage 

 offensive wars, and against others to fortify themselves, by expe- 

 dients and with skill, which will bear comparison with the opera- 

 tions of the most consummate military engineers. Sebastopol itself 

 was not more ingeniously defended by its outworks than, in certain 

 cases, bee-hives are. 



From the curious account which Latreille has given us of 

 Philanthus aviporus, a wasp-like insect, it appears that great havoc 

 is made by it of the unsuspecting workers, which it seizes while 

 intent upon their daily labours, and carries off to feed its young. 



163. Another insect, which one would not have suspected of 

 marauding propensities, must here be introduced. Kuhn informs 

 us, that long ago (in 1799) some monks who kept bees, observing 

 that they made an unusual noise, lifted up the hive, when an 

 animal Hew out, which, to their great surprise, no doubt, for they 

 at first took it for a bat, proved to be the death's-head hawk-moth 

 (Acherontia atropos], already celebrated as the innocent cause of 

 alarm ; and he remembers that several, some years before, had been 

 found dead in the bee-houses. M. Huber also, in 1804, discovered 

 that it had made its way into his hives and those of his vicinity, 

 and had robbed them of their honey. In Africa, we are told, it 

 has the same propensity; which the Hottentots observing, in 

 order to monopolise the honey of the wild bees, have persuaded 

 the colonists that it inflicts a mortal wound. 



This moth has the faculty of emitting a remarkable sound, 

 which he supposes may produce an effect upon the bees of a hive, 

 somewhat similar to that caused by the voice of their queen, 

 which as soon as uttered strikes them motionless, and thus it may 

 be enabled to commit with impunity such devastation in the midst 

 of myriads of armed bands. 



The larvse of two species of moth ( Galleria cereana and Mcllo- 

 nella] exhibit equal hardihood with equal impunity. They, 

 indeed, pass the whole of their initiatory state in the midst of 

 combs. Yet, in spite of the sting of the bees of a whole republic, 

 they continue their depredations unmolested, sheltering themselves 

 in tubes made of grains of wax, and lined with silken tapestry, 

 spun and woven by themselves, which the bees (however disposed 

 they may be to revenge the mischief which they do to them, by 

 84 



