[Illustration: Fig. 290.--The Vine Pyralis in its three states. 1. Leaf with batches of eggs laid upon it. 2. Batches of recently laid eggs. 3. Eggs in which caterpillars can be perceived. 4. Batch of eggs from which the caterpillars have already emerged. 5. Small caterpillars hanging by threads. 6. Leaf with the chrysalis. 7. Caterpillar. 8. Moth.] From the 20th of June to the 10th of July they seek shelter in the dry and interlaced leaves which have already served them for places of refuge and partly also for food, or else they make themselves a fresh nest. At the end of two or three days, the caterpillar has become a chrysalis (Fig. 289), which in a short time assumes a brown colour. Shut up in the interior of the cocoon which the caterpillar had spun before undergoing its metamorphosis, it changes into a moth at the end of from fourteen to sixteen days. The best way to diminish the ravages of the pyralis is to pluck off the leaves which are laden with eggs, and burn them, or bury them in deep holes. Fig. 290, which we devote to the conspicuous insect whose destructive history we have been here able to sketch only slightly, gives all the particulars relating to this dangerous guest of the vineyards. On a branch of the vine may be perceived the pyralis in the caterpillar state, the eggs which have been laid by the moths, the chrysalides, and perfect insects. The eggs are shown at two periods of their development. The Bee-hive or Wax Galleria is to be met with in all countries where bees are reared. The moth (Fig. 291) hides itself during the day round about the bee-hives, and endeavours to make its way into them after sunset. The caterpillar is of a dirty white, with brown warty spots, each surmounted by a fine hair. It lives on wax, twines its threads round the honeycomb, and very soon causes the larvæ contained in it to perish. [Illustration: Fig. 291.--Galleria cerella.] When it emerges from the egg, which the female has laid in the honeycomb, the caterpillar makes for itself with the wax a round tube, in which it is safe against the stings of the bees. This tube, at first very small, is lengthened and enlarged as the caterpillar increases in size. It is generally from three to five inches in length. It is in the interior of this that the caterpillar constructs itself a hard cocoon, resembling leather, and it changes into a brownish chrysalis.