MARCH. 43 



form a kind of operculum, which readily yields to the 

 efforts of the moth to escape from its prison. This 

 escape usually takes place after the corn is thrashed 

 and laid up in granaries, but specimens sometimes 

 appear before this is accomplished. 



" Several methods for preventing or diminishing the 

 ravages of this ' Tinea' have been suggested, the prin- 

 cipal being exposure in machines to heat or carbonic 

 gas. In the former it was found that corn would ger- 

 minate after exposure to a temperature of 70 degrees, 

 Reaumur, and that a higher temperature, 76 to 96 de- 

 grees, for a short period, was less effectual in accom- 

 plishing the destruction of the larvae than a lower one, 

 45 to 50 degrees, continued for a longer time. In the 

 other method, the corn has been found not to be dete- 

 riorated for making bread, nor to have lost the power 

 of germinating. 



" I am not aware that this insect, which appears to be 

 a great pest in granaries in France, has been observed 

 in similar places in this country, though, from the igno- 

 rance of insects generally among those most immedi- 

 ately affected by their ravages, it may exist in plenty 

 without having been distinguished from other moths 

 whose larvae feed on grain. My own is the only 

 British specimen I have seen." (Mr. J. W. Douglas 

 on the British Species of the Genus Gelechia of Zeller, 

 Transactions, Entomological Society, vol. 1, N. S., 

 p. 7.) 



Since the above was written by that indefatigable 

 entomologist, J. W. Douglas, Esq., the insect has been 

 bred in plenty by Mr. J. Scott, of Renfrew. 



If we examine the seeds of the burdock (Arctium 



