114 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
lected colonies. The popular name, wax moth, was doubtless given on 
the supposition that the food of the larva was chiefly wax; but when an 
attempt to rear them on this substance in its usual commercial purity 
is made slight development only results. Probably chemically pure wax 
would not be touched by the larva; but in combs containing the larval 
skins left by developing bees, or containing brood or pollen, they reach 
their highest development if left undisturbed during warm weather, 
finding ample nourishment in the nitrogen-containing pollen and animal 
tissues left by the molting larvae. To protect themselves from the bees 
they line their galleries through the combs with a strong web of silk 
and are able to retreat or advance rapidly through them when attacked. 
The observing bee keeper will occasionally notice the moths resting 
during the daytime on the corners of the hives or under the roof pro- 
jections or edges of the bottom boards. Its color is dull or ashy gray, 
with light and dark streaks, making it so nearly like a protruding sliver 
of a weather-beaten board as to protect it materially from its enemies 
when resting on any unpainted surface that has been long exposed. At 
nightfall the moths may be seen flitting about the hive entrances, seek- 
ing an opportunity to enter and deposit their eggs. If prevented by 
the bees, which are then instinctively on the alert, they deposit in the 
crevices between the hive and stand or between the hive and cap. The 
minute larvae as they emerge soon make their way into the interior of 
the hive. It is possible also that some of the eggs of the moth may be 
left where the bees crawling over them carry them into the hive by 
accident, the freshly laid egg adhering readily to any substance it 
touches. In the northern and middle sections of the United States 
two broods are reared, the first appearing in May, the second and larger 
brood in midsummer or even August. The eggs deposited by the last 
brood develop slowly in the cooler autumn weather, but usually reach 
the pupal stage, in which they normally pass the winter. Individual 
moths may, however, be seen about the apiary during Jane and Jnly, 
and even into the autumn, so that egg deposition is constantly going 
on, and any combs removed from the hive and left unprotected by bees, 
especially if in a warm apartment or a closed box, will soon be in com- 
plete possession of the destructive larvae, which wax fat and soon reduce 
them to a mass of webs. The only remedies are to keep the combs 
under the constant protection of the bees, or, if the colonies are not 
populous enough to cover them fairly, the combs should be hung so as 
to leave a space between them in a cupboard or large box which can 
be closed tightly, so as to subject them for some time to the fumes gen- 
erated by throwing a handful or two of sulphur on live coals, or to the 
odors of bisulphide of carbon in an open vial. Caution is needed in the 
use of the latter, since it is highly inflammable. 
Oriental races of bees are more energetic than others in clearing 
out wax-moth larvae, and Carniolans and Italians more so than the 
common bees. But in colonies always supplied with good queens 
