"The little fleas that do us tease, Have lesser fleas to bite them, And these again have lesser fleas, And so ad infinitum." Bees are no exception to this law, as they have to brave the attacks of reptiles, birds, and other insects. In fact, they are beset with perils at home, and perils abroad, perils by night and perils by day. [Illustration: Fig. 102.] THE BEE MOTH--_Galleria Cereana_, Fabr. 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. [Illustration: 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 (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 (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. [Illustration: Fig. 104.] [Illustration: Fig. 105.] [Illustration: Fig. 106.]