492 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 



the hive to support the cap (fig. 72), and in incasing the 

 bottom (342), was to hinder the moth. 



805. "As soon as hatched, the worm encloses itself in a case 

 of white silk, which it spins around its body; at first it is like a 

 mere thread, but gradually increases in size, and, during its 

 growth, feeds upon the cells around it, for which purpose it has 

 only to put forth its head, and find its wants supplied. It de- 



Fig. 216. 



LARVA AND MOTH AFTB.I BARBO. 



MAGNIFIED. 



vours its food with great avidity, and, consequently, increases 

 so much in bulk, that its gallery soon becomes too short and 

 narrow, and the creature is obliged to thrust itself forward 

 and lengthen the gallery, as well to obtain more room as to 

 procure an additional supply of food. Its augmented size ex- 

 posing it to attacks from surrounding foes, the wary insect 

 fortifies its new abode with additional strength and thickness, 

 by blending with the filaments of its silken covering a mixture 

 of wax and its own excrement, for the external barrier of a 

 new gallery,* the interior and partitions of which are lined 

 with a smooth surface of white silk, which admits the occa- 

 sional movements of the insects, without injury to its delicate 

 texture. 



* This representation o£ the web, or gfillery of the worm, was copied 

 from Swammerdam. 



