§ [January, 



GELECHIA (SITOTROGA) CEREALELLA, Oliv. 

 BY C. G. BAEEETT, F.E.S. 



I am indebted to Mr. Charles Whitehead, of Barming House, 

 Maidstone, for an opportunity of studying this species in all its stages, 

 and although the subject may not be entirely novel, I think that some 

 details will be of interest. Mr. AVhitehead writes, " It is rather in- 

 teresting to corn growers and dealers that Gelechia cerealella comes 

 over from the United States of America in maize. The maize I have 

 simply swarms with it ; moths keep coming out, and I find the larvae 

 and pupae in the grains. I had it from the United States in June, and 

 from the end of that month the moths have been emerging. I presume 

 that it was infested when it came over, it could not have become so 

 here, as it has been in large glass-topped cases ; indeed, I have never 

 heard before of its doing any harm in granaries in Great Britain. It 

 is the " Augommois moth " which has done so much harm in France, 

 and is so destructive in many parts of the United States. There are 

 evidently two broods there at least. I have now traced it through all 

 its stages. I have to-day (October 27th) found three eggs o?i tvheat 

 among which I put moths a fortnight ago." 



Some of these eggs, with larvae, pupae, and moths Mr. "Whitehead 

 has very kindly sent me. The eggs are ovate, a little wrinkled, yellowish 

 or pale yellow-brown, becoming in time more pinkish. They are thrust, 

 in a little group, into the tiny crevice which runs down the furrow of 

 the grain of wheat. Probably they are forced into the chaffy portion 

 at the base of a grain of maize. 



The larva seems to be yellowish throughout. When full grown it is one-fourth 

 of an inch in length, excessively sluggish, with extremely small head partially with- 

 drawn into the second segment ; legs and prolegs minute and obscure, body thick, 

 excessively wrinkled ; segments deeply divided. Head pale yellowish, with a brown 

 spot on each lobe, and very small, darker brown jaws. Body, with the minute legs, 

 fatty-yellow, shining, devoid of markings. So stupidly inert as apparently to be fit 

 only to lie in a cavity of the grain and eat the starchy contents, packing away its 

 excrement in white granules in the cavity behind it. Probably it feeds in more than 

 one grain, but it liollows out all the softer portion, and if it leaves the grain, does so 

 by a small round hole which is closed by a round lid, of the skin not entirely re- 

 moved. Probably the same is done before pupation, whicli takes place in the larval 

 cavity, lined for this purpose with white silk. 



The pupa is ovate and rather short, thickest across the base of the abdomen ; at 

 first pale yellow, unieolorous, so that the organs are not very perceptible, but after a 

 time these become more distinct, the head-cover bent down ; eyes dark and round, 

 placed almost underneath, the front of the head being produced forward and very 

 fully rounded ; limb cases well marked ; wing-covers very long, narrow, and ex- 



