92 



the loss in Washington to be ten times as g-reat as that in British 

 Columbia, that is, $1,680,000. 



In Oreoon, Prof. A. B. Cordle}^, entomologist of the experiment 

 station at Corvallis, placed injuries at the modest estimate of $50,000. 



If to the estimated damage in British Columbia we add the injury 

 which was accomplished in the Provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, 

 there will l)e no difficulty in raising the figures for the Dominion to 

 $200,000. Then it must be remembered that isolated instances of 

 injury were also reported in various States, for instance, in California, 

 Texas, Missouri, Kansas, West Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, 

 and the District of Columbia. Taking all data into consideration, 

 accounting for many localities from which no reports were received, 

 admitting that this species was undoubtedl}^ responsible for much 

 injury merely attributed to cutworms in general and not reported to 

 any official entomologist, also that it is cosmopolitan and practically 

 omnivorous, it would seem that an estimate of $2,500,000 would not 

 be too high as the total cash value of crops injured in the United States 

 during the single season of 1900. — F. H. C. 



OCCURRENCE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN FLOUR MOTH IN MINNESOTA, 

 WISCONSIN, AND MICHIGAN. 



During the past two j^ears several complaints have been made to 

 this office of trou])le occasioned b}" the presence of the Mediterranean 

 flour moth {Ephedia kiiehniella Zell.) in flouring establishments and 

 warehouses in Milwaukee, Wis.; in Minneapolis, and neighboring 

 cities in Miimesota; and quite recently in Detroit, Mich. Through 

 other sources of information we have knowledge of the insect spread- 

 ing to neighboring States and being further disseminated in other 

 States where it has already been established for some time; in fact, it 

 is apparent that it is now onh^ a matter of a few years when this insect 

 will become permanenth^ established in most portions of the Union 

 where milling is an important industiy. All communications were 

 accompanied by specimens, usually with all stages of the insect, in 

 infested flour webbed up in the manner characteristic of this species. 



February 23, 1901, Mr. George W. Peckham wrote of the injurious 

 occurrence of the pest at Milwaukee, Wis., transmitting material 

 received from a gentleman largely interested in flour mills in that 

 vicinity who had experienced a great deal of trouble with it. April 

 20 Mr. Harry D. Cu.shman, Minneapolis, Minn., stated that although 

 he was not aware that mills in that city were badly infested with this 

 moth, he understood that some mills in Superior had to close because 

 of infestation. The modern system of keeping the mills scrupulously 

 clean, not permitting dust or dirt to accumulate, and the turning of 

 the stock of grain and its products every few days, had eliminated to a 



