A practical treatise on the hive and honey-bee - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 edition. Excerpt: ...he was a mile or more from his Apiary. CHAPTER XII. THE BEE-MOTH, AND OTHER ENEMIES OF BEES DISEASES OF BEES. The Bee-Moth (Tinea mellonellci) is mentioned by Aristotle, Virgil, Columella and other ancient authors, as one of the most formidable enemies of the honey-bee. Modern writers, almost without exception, have regarded it as the plague of their Apiaries; while in this country its ravages have been so fatal, that the majority of cultivators have abandoned bee-keeping in despair. Most of the contrivances devised against it have proved worthless, and not a few have aided its nefarious designs. Having closely studied its habits, I am able to show how careful bee-keepers may protect their colonies from being ruined by its assaults. The careless will obtain a " moth-proof" hive only when the sluggard finds a "weed-proof" soil. Before stating how to circumvent the moth, its habits will be briefly described. Swammerdam speaks of two species of the bee-moth (called in his time the " bee-wolf"), one much larger than the other. Linnceus and Reaumur also describe two kir.ds--Tinea cereana and Tinea meUonella. Most writers suppose the former to be the male, and the latter the female of the same species. The following description is abridged from Dr. Harris' Report on the Insects of Massachusetts: " Very few of the Tinece exceed or even equal it in size. In its adult state it is a winged moth, or miller, measuring, from the head to the tip of the closed wings, from five-eighths to three-quarters of an inch in length, and its wings expand from one inch and one-tenth to one inch and four-tenths. The fore-wings shut together flatly on the top of the back, slope steeply downwards at the sides, and are turned up at the end somewhat like the tail of a fowl....