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Rh shows that even after death she is efficient for mischief in the hive.

The eggs are small and white and are put into crevices. From such an egg there hatches a caterpillar which spins about itself a silken tube, wherein it lives and in some mysterious way is protected from the bees. It may be that these tubes are of such texture that the bees cannot sting through them; or they may simply be sufficiently thick to protect their inmate from bee observation. The caterpillar lives upon the wax and young bees, and also upon the bee bread; it is a voracious eater, and tunnels through the comb, destroying everything in its path. Those who have had experience with it say that by holding an infested comb to the ear, the noise made by the industrious jaws of the caterpillar can be distinctly heard. Its presence can be detected by the filth and the débris on the bottom board of the hive and also by the silken tubes on the comb. When the caterpillars destroy the bee larvæ, the bees take out the remains and dump them in front of the hive, thus gaining among the ignorant, a reputation for infanticide which they little deserve.

In favourable locations the growth of these moths from egg to adult may require six weeks; the caterpillar when about an inch in length changes to a pupa, in a very thick, protecting cocoon of tough silk. The silk made by these caterpillars is of a most excellent quality; there is in the Cornell University Museum a filmy but strong silken handkerchief made by bee-moths passing and repassing over a flat