150 
ENEMIES OF BEES. 
gain access to the interior, and ultimately ruin the 
hive. But this takes place only in winter, when the 
bees are languid or partially torpid, and when there is 
a lack of vigilance on the part of their owner. A still 
more formidable enemy is the wax-moth, ( Tinea Mel- 
lonella, PI. VIII. fig. 2,) of whose ravages Feburier has 
given a long and minute detail. This insect is ex- 
tremely alert in discovering any crevice by which it 
may penetrate into the hive, and easily effects its pur- 
pose if the bees are not numerous, and there is no 
centinel on the watch. They lay their eggs in the 
sides of the hive, or in the rubbish on the floor, or 
even in the combs which are farthest from the entrance. 
Every egg contains an insect, which, in due time be- 
comes a moth. It appears first under the form of a 
worm or larva, and it is in this stage that it commits 
its ravages, extending its galleries or covered ways 
throughout every quarter of the interior, and devouring, 
not honey or wax, neither of which substances seems 
to be its proper food, but the exuvite of bee nymphs, 
and, very probably, the nymphs themselves. Certain 
it is that the population of a hive infested by these 
destructive creatures, diminishes with such rapidity as 
leads to the conclusion that they prey upon the brood 
itself as well as on its exuvise. The bees give ground 
step by step, until, being greatly reduced in numbers, 
they at last utterly abandon the hive. Another moth 
of a kind dangerous to bees is mentioned by Huber, 
namely, the Spliynx Atropos, or Death’s-head Hawk- 
moth, so called from its having on its thorax a mark 
somewhat resembling a death’s-head (See PI. IX.) 
