3750 Insects. 



that of the hive of which I have given the above detail of the process 

 of " eating out," was destroyed without my knowledge ; so I was 

 unable to ascertain whether it also produced these insects. However, 

 having, this year, saved the empty comb, I shall carefully watch whe- 

 ther it produces them or not; and if this should be the result it will 

 go some way towards proving that the bees were aware of the attack 

 of this insidious and formidable enemy, and had evacuated the pre- 

 mises before all the fruits of their labour should be destroyed, and 

 themselves starved out ; and this may prove one of the numberless 

 striking instances of the wonderful instinct with which bees, in com- 

 mon with all the rest of the unintelligent creation, are endowed, for 

 their safety and preservation, as man is endowed with reason, i. e, the 

 ability to compare, judge, and act upon the evidences of his senes, for 

 his preservation. 



1 should feel under great obligation to any of your correspondents 

 or readers who may be able either to confirm or the contrary my 

 theory of " robbers," and whether the facts I have detailed are preva- 

 lent all over the country, and what are their conclusions from those 

 facts, and if there is any remedy against being " eaten out;" in short, 

 anything they may have observed in the matter. 



The old bee-keepers here say that no such things as " robber-bees," 

 in this way, were known twenty-five or thirty years ago, but that it is 

 quite of recent date (though I am unable to find out precisely what 

 that date is). If my theory of the honey-moth is correct, its recency 

 would be accounted for, by the fact that this insect has been, until 

 within a few years, accounted rare by entomologists, and, being so, 

 would hardly have had much effect in bee-hives ; but for some few 

 years past it has become very common, and consequently would be 

 proportionably destructive. I have never yet detected, in this neigh- 

 bourhood, the honeycomb-moth (Galleria cereana), which has, I 

 believe, in some places been found to be very destructive among bees, 

 and was bred in large numbers by Mr. Doubleday, of Epping, some 

 nine or ten years ago. It would be interesting, and a great gratifica- 

 tion to me particularly, if any of your correspondents or readers could 

 inform me of the manner in which the attacks of this last insect on 

 bee-hives are conducted, and how they are received by the bees ; and 

 this might possibly throw some light on the present case. 



Octavius Pickard-Cambridge. 



Bloxworth House, Blandford, Dorset, 

 November 27, 1852. 



