1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



235 



ma. Abdominal segments, with tu- 

 bercles at 1 and 2, more or less 

 brownish ; hairs white. 

 Last abdominal segment with two- 

 eyed brown rings at 2; from these 

 the hairs are longer than those on the 

 other segments; also a tubercle at 1, 

 with a heavy brown spot, but not 

 ringed. 



Anal segment splashed with brown, 

 which extends down to the vent; 

 there are also 4 brown spots. 



Feet, concolourous. 



Pupa 



Date of pupation not observed, but 

 was probably during March. Color, 

 light golden brown, slightly darker 

 at head and anal segment; a row of 

 raised brown tubercles on stigma, 

 that on the second abdominal seg- 

 ment partially overlapping the upper 

 edge of the wing cover; on the third 

 the tubercle is just above the edge of 

 the wing cover; on the fourth there 

 is a secondary tubercle below and 

 anterior to the major one; the anal 

 segment is without tubercle and is 

 armed with several short spines. 



The pupa was enclosed in a white 

 cocoon placed mostly within the tun- 

 nels. This fact was mainly responsi- 

 ble for the almost complete loss of 

 the resulting imagoes, some of them 

 being denuded of all scales in their 

 passage through the silk mat, while 

 others were damaged by contact with 

 the honey, the net result being one 

 male and one female secured for 

 identification. The latter agree with 

 some specimens named Vitula serra- 

 tilineella by Dr. Dyar, though the bred 

 specimens are slightly grayer and are 

 not so contrasting in maculation. I 

 am indebted to the kindness of Dr. 

 J. McDonnough for verification of 

 my identification. Quoting from his 

 letter: "I think you will be safe in 

 calling the species V. serratilineella, 

 although personally I have never 

 been satisfactorily able to separate 

 this western species from its near 

 ally in the east, V. edmandsi. The 

 maculation is identical and the hab- 

 its appear to be the same in both spe- 

 cies, the only difference being that 

 the western form is slightly larger. 

 However, in view of the geographical 

 distribution it seems advisable at 

 present to retain the name V. serra- 

 tilineella for the western form." 



The habit referred to by Dr. Mc- 

 Donnough is the fact that V. edmand- 

 si is a habitat of bumblebees' nests, 

 in which it feeds. A description of 

 this is given in Packard's "Guide to 

 the Study of Insects." 



Dr. Dyar. in Pro. U. S. Nat. Mu- 

 seum, Vol. 27, page 921, records hav- 

 ing taken this moth at Shawnigan 

 Lake, B. C. August 17 and September 

 4; while the Kaslo specimen that he 

 had for identification was dated June 

 24. The dates of those in my collec- 

 tion are May 19, 29. June 7, 24, 29, 

 July 9, 19, August 12, December 30; 

 the latter taken in the house this 

 winter. 



Mr. W. L. Sladen, Dominion Apicul- 

 turist, writes me that he has never 

 observed it and Mr. W. J. Sheppard, 

 Provincial Apiculturist, also informs 

 me that, although he has examined 

 tl)Qus^ncis of hives in British Colum- 



bia during the past six years, he has 

 not seen any evidence of it. 



The conclusion is that this moth 

 will only be found amongst stored 

 frames or diseased colonies. 



Since the above was written I am 

 informed that lacking honey on 

 which to feed, the larva: will consume 

 the combs; thus they are to be re- 

 garded as a pest. 



Kaslo, B. C. 



I have read with interest Mr. Cock- 

 le's account of the honey-eating cat- 

 erpillar, and Mr. Malloch and I have 

 looked up the species. It is quite dif- 

 ferent from either, of our well-known 

 wax moths. As Dr. McDonnough is 

 an authority on this group of moths, 

 his opinion that this species (Vitula 

 serratilineella) is essentially the .^iame 

 as V. edmansi carries weight and 

 throws light on the subject; for ed- 

 mansi has long been known to feed 

 on honey and wax in the nests of 

 bumblebees, and might, therefore, 

 readily transfer its attentions to 

 combs of the honeybee. 



This species of Vitula must be add- 

 ed to the list of insects affecting api- 

 culture, though it is evidently of 

 minor importance. 



J. W. FOLSOM, 

 Asst. Prof, of Entomology. 



Urbana, 111. 



Rendering Small Quantities of Wax 



By F. Dundas Todd 



Until last season, when it amounted 

 to 39 pounds, my average annual wax 

 production was about 20 pounds, so I 

 never felt justified in buying a wax 

 press and providing myself with the 

 necessary paraphernalia for render- 

 ing. Each year I tried new methods 

 for retrieving the wax, looking for 

 the easiest way with a fair amount of 

 efficiency. For several seasons I tried 

 putting it all through in small lots in 

 a small sack and found this tedious 

 and mussy. At last I hit upon the 

 idea that the best thing to do would 

 be to get the slumgum all at one end, 

 and so reduce this part of the work to 

 a minimum. 



The material I have had to handle 

 for several years has been a mixture 

 of old combs and cappings, but from 

 now on the former will be at a mini- 

 mum, as every spring I have been 

 weeding out all drone combs, even 

 from the extracting supers, as fast as 

 I could get new combs built. When 

 one is pushing for increase one hesi- 

 tates to destroy a comb because less 

 than a fourth of it contains drone 

 cells, especially in a region that in 

 most years is not favorable to comb 

 building. Last season I got on an 

 even keel, so I fairly well cleaned up 

 every comb that was not pretty nearly 

 perfect. It was the handling of these 

 old combs that gave me the idea that 

 I am now following. 



The working of my own apiary is 

 done on Saturday afternoons, and I 

 hold open house for everybody. The 

 work with the hives is usually done in 

 about two hours, and all the time I 

 am answering questions just as fast as 

 a big, interested crowd can fire them 

 at me. That part over we adjourn to 



the honey house, where the catechism 

 continues for about another hour, and 

 by this time we are all due to start 

 for the city. Any work in the way of 

 repairs and such like that I do for the 

 apiary must be done in the forenoon. 

 In May I overhaul all old combs, de- 

 stroying the poor ones, and as I find a 

 chance render the wax. I have a 

 kerosene oil stove, and on this I put 

 a small pail with a few inches of 

 water, then feed in old comb as fast 

 as it melts. When I hav> about a gal- 

 lon I find it best to proceed to the 

 next operation, which is to strain it. 

 In a hardware store I bought, for the 

 sum of 40 cenits, a wire sieve about 8 

 inches in diameter with wire handles, 

 adjustable in length, such a sieve 

 as a housewife uses for strain- 

 ing soups. This is adjusted on the top 

 of another pail, and I pour the boiling 

 wax through it. The slumgum that 

 remains behind is dumped into a box 

 before it has time to set. Then an- 

 other batch is handled. A thin film of 

 wa.x, of course, gathers on the wire, 

 but it readily melts when the new hot 

 batch is poured into the sieve. 



Extracting in August is done Sat- 

 urday afternoons. The supers are 

 carried into the honey house in the 

 forenoon, and there is generally a 

 jam of people around while extracting 

 is going on. The honey is run into 

 the cans by the end of the day; the 

 cappings are covered over to drain 

 for a week. My first job next Satur- 

 day is to melt these and get them out 

 of my way. Of course I lose a little 

 honey, but I want everything cleaned 

 up as far as possible before going at 

 the end of the season to my home, 

 which is about a hundred miles away. 

 The wax product at the end of Sep- 

 tember is in the form of cakes of wax, 

 that need to be remelted, and a box of 

 slumgum. For final disposal, the lat- 

 ter is packed into 10-pound sugar 

 bags, tied tight and brought to the 

 boil in a pail. With a beater about 

 2j/2 inches square I work it pretty 

 thoroughly, squeezing out the wax; 

 then pour the fluid into a dish with 

 flaring sides to set. The slumgum 

 gets a final squeezing with the beater 

 and is then dumped into a box, and 

 anrtther batch started on the way. 



Here is how the system works out 

 in practice. So as to get fair figures, 

 I got the cappings thoroughly clean 

 and dry. At the start I had SZ'A 

 pounds of cappings and old combs. At 

 the first rendering by straining 

 through the sieve I got 27^ pounds of 

 wax, that is fully 50 per cent of the 

 original weight, which, by the way, 

 was a little better than I got in some 

 experiments I made a dozen years ago 

 with the solar extractor, and with the 

 oven method. Working the slumgum 

 through the sugar sack gave 11'/ 

 pounds, so that T got altogether 39 

 Dounds of wax. To see if I could do 

 better I put some of the slumgum 

 through a second treatment, hut goit 

 so little wax that the outcome did not 

 seem to justify the labor. If T ever 

 fall heir to an old clothes wringer I 

 think my outfit would be complete. 



When dry. a little slumgum is a 

 fine help in starting a fire. 



