WASPS, ANTS AND BEES 195 



community, whose entrance into the hive must be vigorously 

 guarded against. Yellow-jackets hover tentatively around 

 the opening; they are arrant robbers and are ready to take 

 any chance to get at the full honey-cells. But more dangerous, 

 because of the habit of attacking en masse, are honey-bees of 

 other hives. Not infrequently a desperate foray by hundreds 



FIG. 91. A small observation hive in which the honey-comb has been 

 destroyed by larvas of the bee moth, Galleria mellonella. (Greatly re- 

 duced.) 



of other bees will be made into a hive, especially a weak one, 

 and a pitched battle will occur in and about the entrance and 

 inside the hive itself, resulting in the death of hundreds, even 

 thousands of bees. More insidious and even more dangerous 

 are the stealthy invasions of a small dusty-winged moth, the 

 "large" bee-moth, Galleria mellonella, or the "small" bee-moth, 



