20
V. THE LARGE BEE OR WAX MOTH (Galleria mellonella, Linn).
The first intimation of this moth’s presence in New Zealand was when Messrs. H. Betts and Son, of Okaiawa, near Mount Egmont, in the early part of 1904, sent me some larvæ or grubs found in their hives, and which were strange to them. I had no difficulty in recognising them as the grubs of the large wax-moth, having seen them previously in boxes of bees imported from Italy. It is quite likely the eggs or grubs of the moth may have reached here from Australia with bees, as it is known that the moth has been plentiful there for more than a quarter of a century.
When going through the Egmont district in March, 1905, I discovered the moths in three different apiaries a considerable distance apart, showing that they were spreading. A beekeeper in the district, who had trouble with the moth when he commenced beekeeping and has since taken great interest in the matter, recently informed me that he had seen it in a good number of apiaries, but that it only causes trouble ‘‘in the cases of careless beekeepers, and where bees are kept in old box hives.’’ He remarks, ‘‘Personally, I consider they can easily be kept under, but as long as we have careless beekeepers we shall have the large moth in Taranaki.”
Where the Grubs may be Found.
A favourite haunt of the grubs is on the top of the frames under the mat, or where there are two mats they will get in between them. In the daytime they apparently hide from the bees, and at night attack the combs; but when the colony becomes very weak the grubs show no such fear, and attack the combs at all times.
It is the larvæ or grubs of the moth which prove so destructive to the combs, burrowing through them under the protection of strong silken galleries which they spin round themselves, secure from the bees as they advance in their work of destruction. Eventually the combs are completely destroyed, and fall, a mass of web and cocoons, to the bottom of the hive (see Plate V).
Habits and Natural History.
The moth itself, which is usually to be seen during warm summer evenings flitting about the hives, watching for an opportunity to lay its
