2G4 HYMENOPTERA. 
terpillar of a little grey moth^ called the 
wax moth, which contrives to lay its 
eggs in tlie very comh, probably at night, 
when the bees are asleep. The cater- 
pillar, which in a few days quits the e^^, 
is white, with a brown scaly head, and 
so small that it is hardly visible ; but it 
is no sooner hatched than it spins a 
little hollow cylinder, in which it fixes its 
abode. 
Lucy. What is a hollow cylinder r 
Mother, A hollow cylinder is a circu- 
lar tube, of equal breadth in every part ; 
the tube of a telescope, for instance, is 
cylindrical ; or a sheet of paper, if 
evenly rolled up, so that you can see 
through it, forms a cylinder. 
The little tube in which the caterpillar 
lives protects it from the vengeance of 
the bees ; and as it must put the head 
and the first ring of its body out of this 
case when feeding, these parts are made 
so hard and shell v as to resist their 
stings. 
Lucy, But surely such a little worm 
could not kill a bee ? 
