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 interior and parti- 



Fig. 191. 



GALLERY OP MOTH WOKM. 



tionsof 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."— 

 Bevan. 



806. The worm is here given of full size, and with all its 



Fig. 192. 

 THE WOtlMS. 



peculiarities. The scaly head is shown in one of- the 

 worms ; while the three pairs of claw-like fore legs, and 



» TMsrepresentationof the web, or gallery of the worm, was copied ftom 

 Swammerdam . 



