BEE MOTH, or WAX MOTH, a moth belonging to the family Galleridce; specifically, Galleria mellonella, the larva of which feeds on wax in hives. The worm is yellowish-white with brownish dots. It constructs silken gal leries running through the comb of the bee hive on which it feeds. When about to trans form it spins a thick white cocoon. Two broods of the moth appear, one in the spring, the other in August, and the caterpillars mature in about three weeks. It may become a most troublesome pest in the apiary.
the name of a species of orchis, the Ophrys apifera. It is so called be cause a part of the flower resembles a bee. It is large, with the sepals purplish or greenish white, and the lip brown variegated with yellow.
a forest tree inhabited by honey-making bees, which have taken posses sion of some natural hollow and filled it with combs. Such a tree may be found by accident, or by deliberate hunting. Those in search
take to the edge of the woods a box of diluted honey, and when they see bees near them, open the bait to which one by one the bees will be at tracted. The direction of their flight is then carefully observed; the bait is moved to an other point, and new observations taken, and the converging lines followed until they inter sect at the tree. As most of these bee-tree colonies are escaped swarms the capture of the bees themselves is more important than merely to get such honey as may be there. The best plan is therefore to climb to the nest, if pos sible, and gather the combs and contents to be let down in a pail or basket, or else saw out the whole section of the tree containing the nest and lower it to the ground. Full direc tions for this complicated proceeding are given by Root, B C of Bee Culture' (1903).