212 



LEI'lDOl'TERA 



The eggs are laid in the various food substances, breakfast 

 food, seeds, dried fruits, etc., and the larva which is a small, 

 slender caterpillar feeds in this material and usually spins a 

 web as it works so that the food is made quite undesirable. 

 There are usually two broods each year in the latitude of 

 Ohio, but with warmth, the number of generations may be 

 increased to four or five. As with the preceding species, it 

 is possible to sift out the insects from the flour or meal but 

 if infested to any extent their presence is undesirable and 

 infested packages are best returned to the grocer to exliange 

 for fresh material. The prevention of their entrance into 

 the packages of breakfast foods, etc., should be attended 

 to at the mills or ])acking houses. 



Fig. 164.— Mediterranean flour moth {,Epheslia kuehniella): a, moth; 

 b, the same from side, resting; c, larva; d, pupa; e, abdominal segments 

 of larva; a and d, enlarged; c, more enlarged. (After Chittenden, Div. 

 Ent., Circ. 112, U. S. Dept. Ag.) 



The direct treatment of these insects in stored products 

 where fumigation is possible is in store rooms, but cannot be 

 done as advantageously as in the mills or warehouses or 

 where the cereals are ])repared. 



The Mediterranean Flour Moth {Ephestia knehuieUa).— 

 This is a destriictixc insec-t, occurring in stored wheat and 

 other grains, and ])articularly in mills and warehouses, and 

 has now been distril)uted oNcr all parts of the world where 

 grains and their products are stored. It is one of the most 

 serious pests in the large flour mills of the northern United 

 States, in some cases clogging and stopping the machinery 



