2S4 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BKE. 
board and the edges of the hive. It can pass tli rough a 
very small crevice, and as soon as safe from the bees, it 
will begin to enlarge its cramped tenement, by gnawing 
into the solid wood. The time required for the larvuc (o 
break forth into winged insects, varies with the tempera¬ 
ture to which they are exposed, and the season of the 
year when they spin their cocoons.* I have known them 
to spin and hatch in ten or eleven days; and they often 
spin so late in the Fall, as not to emerge until the ensuing 
Spring. 
The male usually keeps away from the hive, but the 
female seeks in every way to gain an entrance. If the 
stock is weak and discouraged, she lays her eggsf among 
• In November (1858), I procured a largo number of cocoons for winter obser¬ 
vations. From many of them, the moths quickly emerged. In others, the larvjo 
slowly changed into pupaj or crysalids; while, in others still, after being exposed 
for more than two months to a summer temperature, they remained in the worm 
state. A few wore exposed for six weeks to a uniform temperature of over SO®, 
and only one passed into the winged moth. Some, after being taken out of their 
cocoons six times, would envelop themselves in a new shroud. 
Dr. Ddnhoff says, that the larvie become motiouless at a temperature of from 88* 
to 40®, and entirely torpid at a lower temperature. A number which he left all 
Winter In his summer-house, revived In the Spring, and passed through their 
natural changes, lie appears to have been more successful than myself in induc¬ 
ing them to develop In Winter, by artificial heat; but this may bo owing to the 
fact that he experimented with larvtn which greedily ate the food given to Iheui, 
andnotas I did^withworms lohichkad apati their cocoons. Further experi¬ 
ments are needed, in order to determine whether dilatory development is peculiar 
to those reaching maturity late in the Full, or is caused by the sudden cluck 
given by cold w'catlicr. 
“ If, when the thermometer stood at 10®, I dissected a chrysalis, it was not frozen, 
but congealed Immediately afterwards. This shows that, at so low a temperature, 
the vital force is sufficient to resist frost. In the hive, the chrysalids and larvrc, in 
various stages of development, pass the Winter in a state of torpor, in corners sud 
crevices, and among the waste on the bottom-boards. In Marcli or April, they 
revive, and the bees of strong colonies commence operations for dislodging them." 
—DoNIIOFK. 
Some larvie which I exposed to a temperature of 6® below zero, froze soHtl, and 
never revived. Others, after remaining for $ hours in a tempurature of about 12®, 
seemeil, after reviving, to remain for weeks In a crippled condition. 
t “The eggs of the bee-moth (see Plate XIII., Fig. 44) are perfectly round, aad 
very small, being only about one-sighth of a line in diameter. In the ducts of the 
ovurium, they are ranged together in tlio form of a rosary. They aro not developed 
