loo Second Report on Economic Zoology. 



infected before they are put into the bottle or afterwards ; (2) what 

 is the duration of life of the larva ; (3) whether dipping the cork in 

 wax is sufficient to kill the creature, or whether it is essential to 

 recork the wine ; (4) whether infection spreads through a cellar by 

 the beetle laying eggs in the various corks, and if so, whether it is of 

 any use disinfecting the cellar either by means of formalin or burning 

 sulphur. I rather gather that the latter is no use, but I cannot find 

 that anyone has ever tried the former. 



" I should be very much obliged if you could inform me what is 

 the proper treatment to adopt, as I find wine merchants differ con- 

 siderably, and also if you could refer me to any books where I could 

 learn more of what is really known. 



" Possibly T am quite wrong and the M'hole process is due to 

 development of fungus, because it seems to me that the wine becomes 

 musty, and is evidently infested with fungus, and I suppose it is a 

 question whether the fungus develops along the track of the insect or 

 whether the whole disease is fungous ah initio." 



To this the following reply was sent : — 



I regret to say there is but little known concerning cork posts. 

 The chief pest is the caterpillar of a small moth, Oinophila V-Jlava, 

 one of the Tineid moths. This larva eats into the corks. The only 

 records I can find concerning it are in the Transactions of the 

 Entomological Soc. Lond., Proceedings, v., p. xxxv., and again, 

 p. xli. The one is as follows : " Mr. Doubleday exhibited some 

 larvae of one of the Tineidcc which had destroyed the corks of a 

 stock of wine so as to render it necessary to recork all the bottles." 

 Again, " Specimens of Gracilaria V-Jlava, bred from the larvae found 

 in the wine corks previously exhibited by Mr. E. Doubleday. This 

 insect, he remarks, until within a few years was very rare in 

 collections, but had lately been found in plenty by Mr. Bedell in 

 wine cellars. As it differs considerably from the other species of the 

 genus Gracilaria, he proposed to separate it under the name of 

 Oinophila." 



Stainton, in his " Insecta Britannica," Lepidoptera, Tineina, p. 231, 

 says it " inhabits wine cellars and wine vaults. The larva has been 

 reputed to feed on the fungus which grows in wine vaults and also 

 on the corks in the bottles, but further investigations are still wanted 

 to fully elucidate the natural history of this singular insect." 



This small moth occurs in cellars, etc., in July and August. It 

 is from one-third to five-twelfths of an inch in length. The fore 

 wings are fuscous, with an angulated yellow fascia in the middle and 

 two yellow marginal spots beyond the middle. 



