458 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Enejiiks of Bees. 



802. The Bee-Moth ( Ti'/iea ?»e/?o»e?/a) is mentioned by 

 Aristotle, Virgil, Columella and other ancient authors, as 

 one of the most formidable enemies of the honey-bee. Even 

 in the first part of this century, the bee-writers, almost 

 without exception, regarded it as the plague of their Apia- 

 ries. 



Fig. 188. 



BEE-MOTH. 



Eggs, natural size and magnified, larva and moths. 



Swammerdam speaks of two species of the bee-moth 

 (called in his time the " bee-wolf"), one much larger than 

 the other. Linnaius and Reaumur also describe two kinds 

 — Tinea cereanti and Tinea mellonella.* Most writers sup- 

 posed the former to be the male, and the latter the female 

 of the same species. The following description is abridged 

 from Dr. Harris' Report on the Insects of Massachusetts : 



$03. "Very few of the Tinece exceed or even equal it in size. 

 In its adult state it is a winged moth, or miller, measuring, from 

 the liead to the tip of theclosed wings, from five-eighths to three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, and its wings expand from one 

 incli and one-tenth to one incli and four-tenths. The fore-wings 



♦Scientists rlo not agree exactly as to these species, nor their names, calling 

 them, galleria cereana, gaUeria alt-earia, tinea cerella, &c. 



