THE BEE-MOTH. 495 



full combs of a discouraged population. In about three 

 weeks, the larvae stop eating, and seek a suitable place for 

 encasing themselves in their silky shroud. In hives where 

 they reign unmolested, almost any place will answer their 

 purpose, and they often pile their cocoons upon one another, 

 or join them together in long rows. They sometimes oc- 

 cupy the empty combs, so that their cocoons resemble the 

 capping of the honey-eells. In Fig. 219, Mr. Tidd has given 

 a drawing, accurate in size and form, of a curious instance 

 of this kind. The black spot's, resembling grains of gun- 

 powder, are the excrements of the worms. 



If the colony is strong, the worm runs a dangerous gaunt- 

 let, as it passes, in search of some crevice, through the ranks 

 of its enranged foes. Its motions, however, are exceedingly 

 quick, and it is full of cunning devices, being able to crawl 

 backwards, to twist roimd on itself, to curl up almost into a 

 knot, and to flatten itself out like a pancake. If obliged to 

 leave the hive, it gets under some board or concealed crack, 

 spins its cocoon, and patiently awaits its transformation. 



809. The time required for the larvse to break forth into 

 winged insects, varies with the temperature to which they 

 are exposed, and the season of the year when they spin their 

 cocoons. We have Imown them to spin and hatch in ten or 

 eleven days; and they often spin so late in the Fall, as not 

 to emerge until the ensuing Spring. 



810. In Northern latitudes where the thermometer ranges 

 for days and weeks below 10 degrees the bee-moth-worm can 

 winter only in the hive near the bee-cluster. It is a fact 

 worthy of notice that apiaries that are wintered in the cellar 

 are more annoyed by the moth during the following Summer 

 than those that are wintered out of doors, because none of 

 the larvae of the moth perish. 



Dr. Donhoff says that the larvse become motionless at a 

 temperature of 38 to 40 degrees, and entirely torpid at a 

 lower temperature. A number, which he left all Winter in 

 his summer-house, revived in the Spring, and passed through 



