272 AUSTRALASIAN 



countries. Langstroth, following Linnaeus and Reaumur, speaks 

 of the tinea cereana and tinea mellonella; Cook, following Fabri- 

 cius, calls the bee-moth galleria cereana, and says it belongs to 

 the family of snout-moths, Pyralidm, and that " its members 

 are very readily recognised by their usually long palpi, the 

 so-called snouts." 



The moth has been found a serious evil in some of the 

 Australian colonies, at least previous to the introduction of the 

 Italian bee. Mr. Fullwood states that the race of black bees 

 was nearly exterminated in Queensland by the moths, but that 

 when Ligurians were imported they soon defended themselves, 

 and obtained the mastery ; and Mr. E. Palmer, of New South 

 Wales, says, " The bee-moth is the great scourge of the wild 

 and cultivated bees, and the only serious obstacle" to successful 

 bee farming of which I have, during a series of years, had any 

 experience." I believe the Australian moth to be identical 

 with the American one. In New Zealand, the moth found in 

 hives is of a smaller species, and is not likely to give much 

 trouble in well-kept hives. 



TINEA CEREANA. 



The following description of this moth in America is taken 

 from Dr. Harris's report on the insects of Massachusetts, as 

 quoted in Langstroth's work : — 



Fig. 126.— BEE-MOTH (Tineai cereana). 



" 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 head to the 

 tip of the closed wing, from five-eighths to three-quarters of an inch 

 in length, and its wings expand from an inch and one-tenth to one 

 inch and four-tenths. The four wing? shut together flatly on the top 

 of the back, slope steeply downwards at the Bides, and are turned 

 up at the ends somewhat like the tail of a fowl. The female is much 

 larger than the male, and dark coloured. There are two broods of 

 this insect in the course of a year. Some winged moths of the first 



