ENEMIES OF BEES. 
293 
account of the number of bees consumed, as their habit 
of spinning a web about the hive, that will occasion- 
ally take a moth, and will probably entangle fifty bees 
the whilst. They are either in fear of the bees, or they 
are not relished as food ; particularly, as a bee caught 
in the morning is frequently untouched during the 
day. This web is often exactly before the entrance, 
entangling the bees as they go out and return ; irri- 
tating and hindering them considerably. They often 
escape after repeated struggles. I have removed a 
web from the same place every morning, for a week, 
that was renewed at night with astonishing persever- 
ance 1 I can generally look out his hiding-place, which 
is in some corner near by, and dispatch him. His re- 
deeming qualities are few, and are more than balanced 
by the evil, as far as I have discovered. Their saga- 
city in some instances will find a place of concealment 
not easily discovered. At the approach of cold wea- 
ther, the box or chamber of the hive being a little 
warmer than other places, will attract a great many 
there to deposit their eggs. Little piles of webbing 
or silk may be seen attached to the top of the hive, 
or sides of boxes. These contain eggs for the 
next year’s brood. This is the time to destroy them 
and save trouble for the future. 
If we combine into one phalanx all the depredators 
yet named, and compare their ability for mischief with 
the wax moth, we shall find their powers of destruc- 
tion but a small item ! Of the moth itself we would 
have nothing to fear were it not for her progeny, that 
