INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CEREALS 249 



evidently bred freely during the winter months in the warm 

 room. 



One of the large powdered food manufacturing com- 

 panies sent us specimens of this beetle and the larva? 

 and said that they were found generally in their factories. 

 The writer reported as follows on the habits of the insect ; 

 " They are found usually in cracks or under cover, seldom 

 being seen in the open. The bugs eat wheat flour and 

 unground wheat malt, while the worms eat the ground 

 malt and our unfinished product. It seems that both are 

 attracted by the sugar content of the material, as they are 

 not found in a certain portion of it which does not contain 

 sugar, with the exception of the wheat flour." 



The larva of this flour-beetle resembles a miniature 

 yellow meal-worm. Of course, it is very much smaller, 

 being only about one-fourth of an inch in length. Its 

 body is hard and of a shining brown color, except at the 

 joining of the segments, where it is lighter in color. Where 

 the larva? are abundant they mat the flour together in 

 hard masses and in these masses one will find the adults, 

 larvae, and pupa?. 



The confused flour-beetle is a pest in mills as well as in 

 houses. W. G. Johnson, in the different issues of the 

 American Miller, gives considerable data regarding this 

 beetle as a pest in mills. In the issue of this periodical 

 for Jan. 1, 1896, he says that it was the most troublesome 

 mill pest of the year 1895 and estimates that it had cost 

 the millers of the United States over $100,000 in manu- 

 factured products during that one year. 



The beetles and the larva? are general feeders, for they 

 are found in the cereals, in corn-meal, oatmeal, flour, and 

 Chittenden says in ginger, cayenne pepper, baking powder, 



