236 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF BEES. 



91.— WORM GALLEBT REMOVED. 



taking up any eggs on their feet, if this should happen to 

 be the method by which they get among the combs of a 

 populous stock. They are often detected there, and I 

 can conceive of no other means by which they can be de- 

 posited. A worm lodged in the comb makes his way 

 either to the center, or between the heads of the young 



bees in the cells and 

 the sealing, and as he 

 proceeds, eats a pas- 

 sage, lining it with a 

 shroud of silk, and 

 gradually enlarging 

 it, as he increases in size, as shown in fig. 90. When 

 combs are filled with honey, they work on the surface, 

 eating only the sealing. In very weak families, this silken 

 passage (fig. 91) is left untouched, but is usually re- 

 moved by all strong colonies. 



When a worm is in the center of a comb filled with 

 brood, its passage is not at first discovered. The bees, to 

 get it out, must bite away half the thickness of the comb, 

 removing the brood in one or two rows of cells, sometimes 

 for several inches. This will account for the number of 

 immature bees often found in the spring on the floor- 

 board at morning ; as well as in stocks but partially pro- 

 tected after the swarming season. 



DEVELOPMENT OV THE LAET^. 



When undisturbed, the larvae will grow one-half or two- 

 thirds larger than when their right to the comb is dis- 

 puted. In one case they often 

 make their growth, and actu- 

 ally wind up in their cocoon, 

 when less than an inch in 

 length ; in the other, they will 

 quietly fatten until they are an inch and a half long, and 

 as large as a pipe-stem ^fig. 93.) When first hatched 



-^•^**tt»«7» 



Fig. 92. — MOTH LABV>B. 



