THE BEE-MOTH. 461 
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 addi- 
tional supply of food. Its augmented size exposing 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 iz/erior and parti- 
Fig. 191. 
GALLERY OF MOTH WORM. 
tions of which are lined with a smooth surface of white silk, which 
admits the occasional movements of the insects, without injury to 
its delicate texture. 
“In performing these operations, the insect might be expected 
to meet with opposition from the bees, and to be gradually 
rendered more assailable as it advanced in age. It never, how- 
ever, exposes any part but its head and neck, both of which are 
covered with stout helmets, or scales, impenetrable to the sting 
of a bee, as is the composition of the galleries that surround it.’— 
Brvan. 
806. The worm is here given of full size, and with allits 
Fig. 192. 
THE WORMS. 
peculiarities. The scaly head is shown in one of the 
worms; while the three pairs of claw-like fore legs, and 
* This representation of the web, or gallery of the worm, was copied from 
Swammerdam. 
