The Bekmoth or Waxworm 



33 



PARASITES 



Three hymenopterous parasites have been recorded from the beemoth. 

 One is chaleid, Eupelmus ccreanus, found by Eoudani in Italy; another 

 is Bracon bravicoriiis, which was found by Marshall in France, and a 

 tliird species, Apentoles lateralis, was recently found by A. Conte in 

 France. The last species was found near Lyons, where it spread very 

 rapidly. It is apparently of considerable importance since it has also 

 been reported to attack the larvae of several other moths in England 

 and Germany. The adult parasite is about one-sixtTi of an inch (4 mil- 

 limeters) in length, very lively, and avoids light. The body is black 

 and the wings are transparent, with black specks. The larvae of the 

 beemoth are attacked while quite young and never attain a large size. 

 A single parasite develops in each larva. The bees are said to pay no 

 attention to the presence of the parasite, so that it can easily enter 

 the hive in search of the beemoth larvae. It was artificially introduced 

 into hives by Conte with very satisfactory results. 



CLIMATE 



Cold is perhaps the greatest climatic factor in the control of the 

 beemoth. Young and vigorous moths when exposed were able to with- 

 stand a temperature of a few degrees below freezing. When a temper- 

 ature of twenty-eight degrees F. occurred, all exposed moths were killed. 

 Even with some protection all moths did not survive this temperature. 

 The young moths may withstand this temperature for one night, but 

 not for a longer period of time. 



The larvae are greatly susceptible to cold. Larvae of all ages even 

 up to two-thirds grown, were placed out-of-doors, and with only the 

 meager protection of light tunnels and small pieces of comb. When- 

 ever a temperature of thirty-two degrees F. was reached, all larvae 

 were killed. Under natural conditions the larvae are better protected 

 to pass through the winter by better built feeding galleries. The nat- 

 ural mortality was observed in an infested hive that was allowed to 

 remain untouched throughout the winter. The results are shown in 

 table 26. It will be seen that the high mortality was among the larvae. 

 Of the 208 larvae examined, 146 or seventy per cent, were dead, and 

 of the 158 pupae examined, eight or five per cent, were dead. 



TablR 26. — Mortality uT waxworms. 



