Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/154

150 gain access to the interior, and ultimately ruin the hive. But this takes place only in winter, when the bees are languid or partially torpid, and when there is a lack of vigilance on the part of their owner. A still more formidable enemy is the wax-moth, (Tinea Mellonella, Pl. VIII. fig. 2,) of whose ravages Feburier has given a long and minute detail. This insect is extremely alert in discovering any crevice by which it may penetrate into the hive, and easily effects its purpose if the bees are not numerous, and there is no centinel [sic] on the watch. They lay their eggs in the sides of the hive, or in the rubbish on the floor, or even in the combs which are farthest from the entrance. Every egg contains an insect, which, in due time becomes a moth. It appears first under the form of a worm or larva, and it is in this stage that it commits its ravages, extending its galleries or covered ways throughout every quarter of the interior, and devouring, not honey or wax, neither of which substances seems to be its proper food, but the exuviæ of bee nymphs, and, very probably, the nymphs themselves. Certain it is that the population of a hive infested by these destructive creatures, diminishes with such rapidity as leads to the conclusion that they prey upon the brood itself as well as on its exuviæ. The bees give ground step by step, until, being greatly reduced in numbers, they at last utterly abandon the hive. Another moth of a kind dangerous to bees is mentioned by Huber, namely, the Sphynx Atropos, or Death's-head Hawkmoth, so called from its having on its thorax a mark somewhat resembling a death's-head (See Pl. IX.)