ANGOUMOIS moth: ITS LIFE HISTORY. I07 



case is rent, and the moth emerges, leaving its pupal case within the 

 cocoon. This is usually in the month of August. 



The moths of the first brood soon deposit their eggs for the second 

 brood. The larvae proceeding from these continue in the larval stage 

 throughout the winter, to pupate the following spring, and to come 

 abroad as a moth during the months of May or June. 



So little has been added to the natural history of this insect since the 

 observations of the preceding century — not to be wondered at, per- 

 haps, in consideration of the better opportunities afforded for its study 

 at that time by its excessive abundance, the distinguished scientists en- 

 gaged in its investigation, and the government commission under which 

 the studies were conducted — that the account of these observations as 

 briefly given by M. Olivier cannot fail of being read with interest. We, 

 therefore, translate a page (114-115) from the Encijclopedie Me'thodique 

 — Histoire Naturelle — Insedes, iv, 1789 : 



Reaumur has given us the history of another caterpillar which attacks 

 grain, which produces a small Ahicita that we have named cerealelln, 

 and which should not be confounded with the one of which we have 

 been speaking \Alucita granelhi]. The caterpillar of Ahicila cercahVa 

 introduces itself even into the substance of the grain, from which it 

 does not emerge except in the state of the perfect insect, to spread it- 

 self into the fields, to couple, and to establish a new posterity upon the 

 grains, even before they have hardened. 



There appear, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 

 for the year 1761, some observations made in Angoumois by Messrs. du 

 Hamel and Tillet, on the caterpillars which caused, in 1760, very con- 

 siderable damage to the grains of that province. It seems, from the 

 observations of these distinguished academicians, that the insect often 

 deposits its eggs on the heads of the wheat or the barley before their 

 perfect maturity ; that the eggs are of a beautiful orange-red color ; 

 that the larva introduces itself into the grain through a small opening 

 which is found between the beard and the appendages of the sheath ; 

 that the larva grows insensibly without leaving the grain, which serves 

 it at the same time for food and lodging ; that it changes there to a 

 chrysalis, and that it does not come forth but in the state of the perfect 

 insect. 



But these caterpillars attack not only the grain in the head, but also 

 in the granaries, as Reaumur, du Hamel and Tillet have observed. 

 When a caterpillar, newly hatched, seeks to pierce a grain of wheat to 

 occupy it, it commences its operations at the lower end of the groove, 

 where the outside is still soft, and consequently more easily j)enetrated; 

 it spins a slight web which serves to cover it; it pierces the kernel and 

 penetrates by degrees into the interior. Reaumur has observed that of 

 the grains they attack more particularly wheat, oats and barley, but 

 that they prefer the last, and locate there more readily when they have 

 the choice. The kernels in which these caterpillars are inclosed appear 

 like the othejs, since the outside has not been eaten, and that the opening 

 through which the caterpillar entered is imperceptible; but if different 



