57 



of the large wax-moth, having seen them previously in boxes of bees imported 

 from Italy. It is quite likely the eggs or grubs of the moth may have reached 

 here from Australia with bees, as it is known that the moth has been plentiful 

 there for more than a quarter of a century. 



When going through the Egmont district in March, 1905, I discovered 

 the moths in three difierent apiaries a considerable distance apart, show- 

 ing that they were spreading. I have since had grubs sent me from 

 the Patea district. A beekeeper in the former district, who had trouble 

 with the moth when he commenced beekeeping and has since taken great 

 interest in the matter, recently informed me that he had seen it in a good 

 number of apiaries, but that it only causes trouble " in the cases of careless 

 beekeepers, and where bees are kept in old box hives." 



, natural size 

 Laboeb Bee- moth. 



Where the Grubs may be found. 



A favourite haunt of the grubs is on the top of the frames under the 

 mat, or where there are two mats they will get in between them. In the 

 daytime they apparently hide from the bees, and at night attack the combs ; 

 but when the colony becomes very weak the grubs show no such fear, and 

 attack the combs at all times. 



It is the larvae or grubs of the moth which prove so destructive to the 

 combs, burrowing through them under the protection of strong silken 

 galleries which they spin round themselves, secure from the bees, as they 

 advance in their work of destruction. Eventually the combs are com- 

 pletely destroyed, and fall, a mass of web and cocoons, to the bottom of 

 the hive (see Plate XIX). 



.'Habits and Natural History 

 The moth itself, which is usually to be seen during warm summer evenings 

 flitting about the hives, watching for an opportunity to lay its eggs within 

 or near the entrances, can readily discover weak colonies, when it does not 

 hesitate to enter the hives, and thus the grubs eventually get a footing, 

 from which they are seldom or never dislodged by the bees. 



