DESCRIPTION OF THE ANGOUMOIS MOTH. 



105 



and pestilence from the want of wholesome bread."* Two members of 

 the Academy of Science of Paris were appointed as Commissioners to 

 visit the provdnce of Angoumois, and investigate the insect. They did 

 so, and their report was published in the Memoirs of the Academy, and 

 also as a separate volume for more general distribution, under title of 

 " Histoire d'un Insecte qui devore les Grains de 1' Angoumois,'' Paris, 

 1762, 12 mo. 



In 1768 a communication upon it was presented to the American 

 Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, by Colonel Landon Carter, of 

 Virginia, entitled "Observations concerning the Fly-Weevil that destroys 

 Wheat." ( Harris. )t 



In 1796, the insect was so abundant in North Carolina as to extin- 

 guish a lighted candle when a granary was entered at night. 



In following years it continued to spread, extending itself into sev- 

 eral of the States, particularly those lying within the " wheat belt." 

 Notices of it were communicated to the agricultural papers and jour- 

 nals, among which are those of Mr. Edward P,.uffin, of Virginia, in 1833 

 and 1847, of Mr. S. Judah, of Indiana, in 1845, and of Mr. Richard 

 Owen, of Indiana, in 1846, as referred to by Dr. Harris. 



Description of the Moth. 



The moth, reared from corn, is 0.60 in. (average of seven examples) 

 in expanse of wings. The head is smooth, the antenna are nearly as 

 long as the body, tapering moderately to the tips, each joint being 

 tipped with black upon the upper side. The palpi are long, curving 

 backward over the head like horns, the joints quite distinct, the last 

 one banded with black near its tip. The body and fore-wings are a 

 dull yellowish or buff color (coffee-and-milk) and of a satiny lustre, es- 

 pecially on the under side of the wings. The front wings are long 



and narrow, freckled with 

 black scales, which are 

 thicker toward the tips, 

 and forming a line along 

 the plait of the wings ; 

 the fringe is of a paler 

 color, long, often trav- 

 ersed with a black line 

 near their attachment to 

 „ „ , I ., the wing. The hind wings 



Fig. 19. — SiTOTROGA CEREAi.F.M.A ; a, thp larva; 6, the pupa; c, ° ^ 



the iiioUi ; <h the wiuRs of a paler variety : e. the egsr: /, kernel „,.„ Klnr-I-icli rtf n lparlf»n 



i.fcornshowin^' the work of the larva: j;, labial palpus of the male '^^ ^ UiacKisii, ui a. icducu 



moth; ;., anal segment of the pupa- all etmrged except/. ^^^^^^^^ narrOW, very sud- 



*Harris: Treat. Ins. Inj. Vcg., 18i)2, p. 500. 



i Mr. E. C Herrick, in the Report of the Commissioner of Patents for 1844, p. 75, refers 

 to a communication upon this species from Colonel Carter, in the Trans. Amer. Philnxnph. 

 Soc, vol. i, 1771; and another by J. Lorain, in Mease's Archides of Unefal Knowkdfje, 

 vol. ii, 1812. 



14 



