This insect belongs to the family of snout moths, Pyralidæ. This 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 visible." 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.
| Fig. 102. | Fig, 103. |
The eggs of the bee moth are white, globular and very small. These are usually pushed into crevices 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 entrance.—Soon these eggs hatch, when the gray, 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 ([a]Fig, 102]) which they have 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 larvæ may be known by this robe of glistening silk, as it extends in branching outlines ([a]Fig, 103]) along the surface of the comb. A more speedy 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-larvæ are at work. Soon, in three or four weeks, the larvæ are full grown ([Fig, 104]). Now the six jointed, and the ten prop-legs—making sixteen in all, the usual number of caterpillars—are plainly visible.
Fig. 104.  | Fig. 105.  |
Fig. 106.  |
These larvæ are about an inch long, and show, by their plump appearance, that they at least, can digest comb. They now spin their cocoons, either in some crevice about the hive, or, if very numerous, singly ([Fig, 105, a]) or in clusters ([Fig, 105, b]) on the comb, or even in the drone-cells ([Fig, 105, c]) in which they become pupæ, and in two weeks, even less, sometimes, during the extreme heat of summer, the moths again appear. In winter, they may remain as pupæ for months. The moths or millers—sometimes incorrectly called moth-millers—are of an obscure gray color, and thus so mimic old boards, that they are very readily passed unobserved by the apiarist. They are about three-fourths of an inch long, and expand ([Fig, 106]) nearly one and one-fourth inches. The females ([Fig, 107]) are darker than the males ([Fig, 107]), possess a longer snout, and are usually a little larger. The wings, when the moths are quiet ([Fig, 107]) 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 Réaumur 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.
Fig. 107.
It is generally stated that these are two-brooded, the first moths occurring 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 larvæ 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. Circumstances may so retard growth and development that there may not be more than two, and possibly, in extreme cases, more than one brood in a season.
It is stated by Mr Quinby that a freezing temperature will kill these insects in all stages, while Mr. Betsinger thinks that a deserted hive is safe, neither of which assertions are correct. I have seen hives, whose bees were killed by the severe winter, crowded with moth pupæ or chrysalids the succeeding summer. I have subjected both larvæ and pupæ to the freezing temperature without injuring them. I believe, in very mild winters, the moth and the chrysalids might be so protected as to escape unharmed, even outside the hive. It is probable too, that the insects may pass the winter in any one of the various stages.