54 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. - 
last, when, on leaving home, the jar was put aside and overlooked 
for some three months. When it again came under observation the 
whole of the flour had been passed through the larve; no fresh 
flour has since been added, but the larve have thriven on the 
frass and dead bodies of their progenitors, which they consume 
with avidity. Imagines still continue to emerge, and the larve 
now feeding appear to be quite healthy, but the quantity of frass 
remaining is greatly reduced in bulk, and darkened in colour. 
In another case, wishing to examine the egg microscopically, 
I placed a moth in a small glass-topped pill-box, with a few 
grains of rice; after a few days a careful search revealed three 
most uninteresting looking ova attached to one of the grains. 
After examination they were allowed to remain in the box, and 
shortly a larva was found to be feeding. After a time the second 
egg hatched, and ultimately the third. Two of the larve have 
already fed up in this small box, and produced imagines, which, 
on dying, were promptly devoured by the remaining larva, which, 
despite its imprisonment for so long a time, is now quite healthy 
and growing steadily. 
The larvee that I have had under observation have throughout 
fed, by preference, in confined spaces,—for instance, between the 
pieces of rag before mentioned and the sides of the jar,—rather 
than in the midst of the food, which habit suggests that, under 
natural conditions, the spaces between floor-boards, disused sacks, 
round skirtings, and similar situations in flour mills, &c., as well 
as the beams, &c., already referred to, would form suitable 
breeding grounds for the species, and in such it would be likely 
to multiply to a dangerous extent without being noticed; but, 
except under such conditions, I am not apprehensive of its occur- 
rence in such numbers as to do any great amount of mischief. 
Although it is improbable that a pest of this description, once 
established, is likely to be altogether exterminated, there can be 
little doubt that if places likely to afford harbour are frequently 
cleansed of accumulated dust, the chief source of danger of any 
large outbreak will be removed. 
Lewisham, February, 1892. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL PINS. 
By Dr. D. Swarr, F.B.S., &c. 
In his note on this subject in the September number of the 
‘Entomologist’ (xxiv. 215), Mr. South has called attention to a 
matter of great practical importance. Everyone who has been 
for many years, or even a few years, much occupied in dealing. 
with entomological specimens must have had frequent occasion 
to regret the loss of valuable examples due to the corrosion of 
