LEPIDOPTEEA. 277 



in the dry and interlaced leaves which have already served them 

 for places of refuge and partly also for food, or else they make 

 themselves a fresh nest. 



At the end of two or three days, the caterpillar has become a 

 chrysalis (Fig. 289), which in a short time assumes a brown 

 colour. Shut up in the interior of the cocoon which the cater- 

 pillar had spun before undergoing its metamorphosis, this changes 

 into a moth at the end of from fourteen to sixteen days. 



The best way to diminish the ravages of the pyralis is to pluck 

 off the leaves which are laden with eggs and burn them, or bury 

 them in deep holes. 



Fig. 290, which we devote to the conspicuous insect whose 

 destructive history we have been here able to sketch only slightly, 

 gives all the particulars relating to this dangerous guest of the 

 vineyards. On a branch of the vine, may be perceived the pyralis 

 in the caterpillar state, the eggs which have been laid by the 

 moths, the chrysalides, and perfect insects. The eggs are shown 

 at two periods of their development. 



The Bee-hive or Wax Galleria is to be met with in all countries 

 where bees are reared. 



The moth (Fig. 291) hides itself 

 during the day round about the bee- 

 hives, and endeavours to make its way 

 into them after sunset. The caterpillar 

 is of a dirty white, with brown warty 

 spots, each surmounted by a fine hair. 



It lives On Wax, twines its threads Fi. 291.-Galleria cerella. 



round the honey comb and very soon causes the larvae contained 

 in it to perish. 



When it emerges from the egg, which the female has laid in 

 the honey comb, the caterpillar makes for itself with the wax a 

 rounded tube, in which it is safe against the stings of the bees. 

 This tube, at first very small, lengthens and enlarges as the 

 caterpillar increases in size. It is generally from three to five 

 inches in length. It is in the interior of this that the caterpillar 

 constructs itself a hard cocoon, representing leather, and it changes 

 into a brownish chrysalis. 



A species of the genus Butalis, the Butalis or Alwita granella> 



