SEOURINO HONEY FROM THE MOTH, 183 



The reader would like to If now how these worms 

 came in the jars, when, to all appearance, it was a phy- 

 sical impossibility. X would like to tell positively, but 

 cannot. But I will guess, if you will allow it. I will 

 first premise, that I do not suppose they are generated 

 spontaneously ! Their being found there, then, would 

 indicate some agent or means not readily perceived. 



A SOLUTION OFFERED. 



The hypothesis that I offer is original and new, and 

 therefore open for criticism ; if there is a better way to 

 account for the mystery, I would be glad to know it. 



From the first of June till late in the fall, the moth 

 may be found around our hives, active at night, but 

 still in the day. The only object probably is to find 

 a suitable place to deposit its eggs, that the young may 

 have food ; if no proper and convenient place is found, 

 why, I suppose it will take up with such as it can find ; 

 their eggs must he deposited somewhere, it may be in 

 the cracks in the hive, in the dust at the bottom, or 

 outside, as near the entrance as they dare approach. 

 The bees running over them may get one or more of 

 these eggs attached to their feet or bodies, and carry 

 it among the combs, where it may be left to hatch. It 

 IS -not at all probable that the moth ever paissed 

 through the hive among the bees, to deposit her eggs 

 in the jars before mentioned. Had these jars been lefi 

 on the hive, not a worm would have ever defaced a 

 comb ; because, when the bees are numerous, each 

 worm as soon as it commences its work of destruction 

 will be removed, that is, when it works on the surface. 



