4oi 



tJ The Bee Moth. 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 



Swift was no mean entomologist, as is shown in the fol- 

 lowing stanza: 



"The little fleas that do us tease, 

 Have lesser fleas to bite them. 

 And these ae;ain have lesser fleas, 

 And so aainfiniium. " 



Bees are no exception to this law, as they have to brave 

 the attacks of reptiles, birds, and other insects. In fact 

 they are beset with perils at home and perils abroad, perils 

 by night and perils by day. 



THE BEE MOTH GALLEKIA CEREANA, FABR. 



This insect belongs to the family of snout moths, Pyral- 

 idae. This snout is not the tongue, but the palpi, which 

 fact was not known by Mr. Langstroth, who is usually so 

 accurate, as he essayed to correct Dr. Harris, who stated 

 correctly that the tongue, the ligula, was " very short and 

 hardly visible." This family includes the destructive hop 

 moth, and the noxious meal and clover moths, and its mem- 

 bers are very readily recognized by their usually long palpi, 

 the so-called snouts. 



The eggs of the bee moth are white, globular and very 

 small. These are usually pushed into crevices by the female 

 moth as she extrudes them, which she can easily do by aid 

 of her spy-glass-like ovipositor. They may be laid in the 

 hive, in the crevice underneath it, or about the entrance. 

 Soon these eggs hatch, when the gray, dirty looking cater- 

 pillars, with brown heads, seek the comb on which they 

 feed. To better protect themselves from the bees, they 

 wrap themselves in a silken tube (Fig. 189), which they 

 have power to spin. They remain in this tunnel of silk 

 during all their growth, enlarging it as they eat. By look- 

 ing closely, the presence of these larvse may be known by 

 this robe of glistening silk, as it extends in branching out- 

 lines (Fig. 190) along the surface of the comb. A more 

 speedy detection, even, than the defaced comb, comes from 

 the particles of comb, intermingled with the powder-like 

 droppings of the caterpillars, which will always be seen on 



