2S4 
THE HIVE AND UONKY-BL'E. 
board and the edges of the hive. It can pass through 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 larvae to 
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 (1S5S), I procured a large number of cocoons for winter obser¬ 
vations. From many of them, the moths quickly emerged. In others, the larvae 
slowly changed into pupa) 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 were exposed for six weeks to a uniform temperature of over 80°, 
and only one passed into tho winged moth. Some, after being taken out of their 
cocoons six times, would envelop themselves in a new shroud. 
Dr. Donhoif says, that the larvie become motionless at a temperature of from 8S° 
to 40°, and entirely torpid at a lower temperature. A number which he left all 
Winter in his summer-house, revived in tho Spring, and passed through their 
natural changes. He appears to have been more successful than myself in induc¬ 
ing them to develop in Winter, by artificial heat; but this may be owing to the 
fact that he experimented with larvre which greedily ate the food given to them, 
and not as I did , with worms which had spun their cocoons. Further experi¬ 
ments are needed, in order to determine whether dilatory development is peculiar 
to those reaching maturity late in the Fall, or is caused by the sudden check 
given by cold weather. 
u If, when tho thermometer stood at 10°, I dissocted a chrysalis, it was notfrozon, 
but congealed Immediately afterwards. This shows that, at so low a temperature, 
the vital force is sufficient to resist frost. In the hive, tho chrysalids and larvie, in 
various stages of development, pass the Winter in a state of torpor, in corners and 
crevices, and among tho waste on tho bottom-boards. In March or April, they 
revive, and tho boes of strong colonies commence operations for dislodging them.” 
— Donuoff. 
Some larviB which I exposed to a temperature of 6° below zero, froze 6olid, and 
never revived. Others, after remaining for 8 hours in a temperature of about 12°, 
seemed, after reviving, to remain for weeks in a crippled condition. 
t w The eggs of the bee-moth (see Plate XIII., Fig. 44) are perfectly round, and 
very small, being only about one-eighth of a line in diameter. In the ducts of tho 
ovarium, they are ranged togethei in tho form of a rosary. They are not developed 
