BEE MOTH. Gawk cereana. This insect belongs to 'the family of snout moths, Prolida. The snout is not the tongue,but the palpi, which fact was not known by Mr. Langstroth, Who is usually so accurate, as he essayed to correct Dr. Harris, who stated correctly, that the tongue, the ligula, was very short and hardly visable. This family includes the destructive hop moth, and the noxious meal and clover moths, and its members are very readily recognized by their unusually long palpi, the so-called snouts. The eggs of the bee-moth are white, globular and very small. These are usually pushed, into cre vices by the female moth as she extrudes them, which she can easily do by aid of her spy-glass like ovipositor. They may be laid in the hive, in the crevice underneath it or about the en• trance. Soon these eggs hatch, when the gra3r, dirty looking caterpillars, with brown heads, seek the comb on which they feed. To better protect themselves from the bees, they wrap themselves in a silken tube which they have the power to spin. They remain in this tunnel of silk during all their growth, enlarging it as they eat. By looking closely, the presence of these larvw may be known by this robe of glis tening silk, as it extends in branchin_ outlines erpillars—are plainly visible. These larvT are about an inch long. They now spin their co coons, either in some crevice about the hive, or, if very numerous, singly or in clusters on the comb, or even in the drone-cells in which they become pupa;, and in two weeks, even less, sometimes, during the extreme heat of summer, the moths again appear. In winter, they ma along the surface of the comb. more spec y detection, even; than the defaced comb, comes from the particles of comb, intermingled with the powder-like droppings of the caterpillars, which will always be seen on the bottom-board in case the moth-larva; are at work. Soon, in three or four weeks, the larva are full grown Now the six-jointed, and the ten prop-legs making sixteen iu all, the usual number of cat remain as pup or moot is. • e moths or
millers—sometimes incorrectly called lers—are of an obscure gray color, and thus so mimic old boards, that they are ve readily ry passed unobserved by the apiarist. They are about three-fourths of an inch long, and expand nearly one and one-fourth inches. The females are darker than the males, possess a longer snout, and are usually a little larger. The wings, when the moths are quiet, are flat on the back for a narrow space, then slope very abruptly. They rest by day, yet, when disturbed, will dart forth with great swiftness, so Reuamur styled them nimble-footed. They are active by night, when' they essay to enter the hive and deposit their one or two hundred eggs. If the females are held in the hand they will often extrude their eggs; in fact, they have been known to do this even after the head and thorax were severed from the abdomen, and still more strange, while the latter was being dissected. It is generally stated that these are two-brooded, the first moths occur ring in May, the second in August. Yet, as I have seen these moths in every month from May to September, and as I have proved by actual observation that they may pass from egg to moth in less than six weeks, I think under favorable conditions there may be even three broods a year. It is true that the varied conditions of temperature—as the moth larva' may grow in a deserted hive,. in one with few bees, or one crowded with bee life—will have 'much to do with the rapidity of development. Circum stances may so retard growth and development that there may not be more than and possibly, in extreme cases, more than one brood in a season.—Manual of the Apiary.