540 



THE BEE-MOTH (Galleria mellonella, L.). 



The honey-bee has several insect enemies which prey upon it 

 or its "products. The most troublesome of these, as far as the bee- 

 keeper is concerned, is the insect figured here in its different stages , 



The Bee-moth : a, caterpillar ; f>, cocoon ; c, pupa ; d, a femalemoth with 

 expanded wings ; e, a male moth at rest; 



which is too well known to bee-keepers to require more than a brief 

 description. At a is shown one of the full-grown caterpillars or 

 11 grubs " natural size. They are very active, dirty white, fat 

 caterpillars, when full-grown, about an inch in length, which some- 

 times occur in large numbers in neglected hives, and eat long 

 galleries through the comb, feeding on the wax and the bee-bread 

 in the cells, and also, according to Dr. Riley, destroying any young 

 bees that come in their way. The eggs are very small, oval, 

 glistening white at first, but turning pink before hatching ; they 

 are pushed by the mother moth into any crack or crevice in or 

 about the hive, by means of a long tube-like ovipositor. As soon 

 as the young caterpillars hatch, they begin to spin as a protection 

 a silken tube in which they live during their whole larval life, and 

 which is enlarged and extended as they progress. When full- 

 grown, they leave these tubes and creep into any crevice or corner, 

 generally near the bottom of the hive, where they spin a tough 

 cocoon b of white silk mixed with pellets of black excrement. The 

 pupa c may be found inside thecocoon. The perfect insect is figured 

 natural size at d, a female with the wings expanded, and e, a 

 male at rest. 



There are normally two broods in the season, the first appear- 

 ing in May and the second, usually much more numerous, in 

 August. In infested comb brought into a heated office for study, 

 the moths appeared at the end of March and through April well 

 into May. 



The moths are of various tints of dusky gray and differ a 

 good deal, some being much lighter than others, and some specimens 

 of both sexes being of a more ruddy brown. They are very 

 inconspicuous when at rest, and in colour resemble very closely old 

 weathered wood, a resemblance which is heightened by many dark 

 spots on the wings. The peculiar shape of the wings, as is shown 

 in the figure above, will easily enable any one to identify this insect. 

 The moths are about three-quarters of an inch long, and when at 



