Wax Moth Larva

acbees · Post by **acbees** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:39 pm

Took the top off of one of our hives to find this wax moth larva living on the inner cover. Took a few shots before I did away with it. They don't sit still very long. If these get started down in the wax comb of a weak hive they can pretty well destroy it. Bee parts in the pics are the result of a spider that is also living on the inner cover.
K20, 50mm Super Macro Takumar, f/16, 1/180, homemade PVC snoot and diffuser. Some cropping.
Arvin

Notice the bee antenna and body segments.

If you look close at the out of focus object in the foreground and the object to the right of the larva's head, you can see 2 bee eye "covers". Didn't realize their eyes were like this. Cocoon is behind the larva.

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 11:34 pm

I think the "covers" are tergites from the cast skin of the larva.

What I hated most about this pest is the way it chews deep channels in the frames , and sometimes in the hive body.

Harold

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:22 am

Great photos and information. Honeybees do not need any more stress on their populations. This year in my garden, I am really seeing the decline in the bee numbers, actually both the wild and domesticated populations seem to be down in my area. Very scary.

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:51 am

This morning I saw some 'stress'.

Two solitary bees, smaller than honeybees and with lots of whitish hair between adominal segments (andrenids?), were wrestling on the floor with their mandibles locked.

They then parted, one visiting a flower, the other chasing a bumble bee from another flower but not making contact.

I suppose that, had any honey bee been present, it might also have been mugged.

I have never seen this behaviour before.

harold

acbees · Post by **acbees** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:11 pm

Harold & beeltleman,
Thanks for the comments.
Harold you could very well be right and if you are I'm glad you caught me before I spread anymore false info. I went back out to try and get another pic of just the objects, but I had taken the cover off after I had taken the pics and wasn't able to find them. The mottled look of the eye in this pic I attempted to take last February of a dead bee in the cell that had died during the winter was part of the reason I believed they came from a bee. I'm checking elsewhere and will keep my eye open for more. Thanks.
Arvin