16 THE FIG MOTH. 
as are those of H'phestia kuehniella, the cocoon thus formed looking 
much like that of the flour moth. June 6 the first moth issued, and 
at the same time larve were discovered at work in an open bottle of 
corn meal standing on the writer’s office desk. The meal had been 
used for observations on other insects and it had not been necessary 
to keep it covered. A moth of this species had escaped from an open 
box of nuts, laid its eggs in the meal, and this was the result. Subse- 
quently moths were reared in great numbers, this accidental evidence 
of the cereal-feeding habit of the species proving more satisfactory 
than a purely artificial experiment would have been. 
During July a larva, from the same source as the ones found in the 
corn meal, was discovered at work in a small box of duplicate speci- 
mens of moths of its own species. It had ruined seven specimens by 
eating away their abdomens and in some cases a portion of the wings. 
In the rearing jars evidence of this same habit had previously been 
noticed. ' 
Other stray larvee were found breeding in the berries of asparagus, 
which they appeared to relish as much as any other food material. 
Moths also bred from stored corn at this time in two instances. 
November 12, 1896, the late Dr. James Fletcher sent specimens of 
the larvee breeding in linseed meal received from Montreal, Canada. 
On June 2, 1898, Mr. J. L. Sheppard, Charleston, S. C., sent speci- 
mens of the larva in its webs in cleaned or white rice, with informa- 
tion that nothing injures the sale of their domestic rice as do these 
larve. During the previous year they appeared in rice toward th 
last of the summer, many of them at that time being quite large and 
measuring upward of half an inch in length. 
September 21 of the same year Mr. Frank Bates, an entomologist, 
residing at South Braintree, Mass., wrote that the larvee do much 
damage to chocolate unless great precautions are taken, and that he 
had known the owner of a chocolate company at Milton, Mass., to 
order several tons of chocolate shells, so-called, valued at about $200 
a ton, to be thrown into the furnace and destroyed, as he would not 
risk any depreciation of his goods. He had occasionally seen “ shells ” 
in bulk at small grocery stores almost matted together by the silken 
threads thrown out by these larvee, so that a mass as large as a man’s 
head could be lifted from the barrel and the larve would be seen 
crawling out of the mass. ‘“ This,” he writes, “ gives us the evident 
warning never to purchase cocoa shells except those done up in pound 
cartons.” Our correspondent stated that he never employed for his 
personal use any manufactured chocolate except that manufactured 
by one firm, which he knew to be of the best quality, since the owner 
did not permit any shells to be sold in bulk. 
During 1907 Mr. Perry D. Preston, Isthmian Canal Commission, 
Canal Zone, Isthmus of Panama, wrote from Empire, sending speci- 
