1899] MEDITERRANEAN MILL MOTH. 85 



know of it from published accounts as being present in Germany, 

 Holland, and Belgium, and also at various of the Mediterranean ports. 

 In some of the more recent enquiries sent to myself in the course of 

 examination of samples of condition of flour from about one hundred 

 and thirty barrels, imported from an Hungarian mill, I found (besides 

 what was the special subject of enquiry) lumps of the clotted-up flour, 

 which is a sign of Ejohestia presence. Also in the case of two ship- 

 ments of flour from an Adriatic port the outside of the sacks were 

 found on landing to be thickly infested with maggots and cocoons, 

 which my correspondent, from his own study of the subject, considered 

 to be of E. kuhniella; and, so far as the specimens sent enabled me to 

 judge, I saw no reason to doubt his identification. 



In Canada it appeared as a serious flour mill pest in 1889 (two 

 years after the date of the first recorded observation of its presence in 

 England). In 1892 it was found present in mills in California, and 

 in 1895 its appearance was observed in New York State. It has also 

 been reported from North Carolina, Alabama, Mexico, Colorado, and 

 likewise from Chile. Thus, looking at the vast area of known infesta- 

 tion, and the probability of a greatly increased spread having further 

 occurred, there is a presumption that flour imports from most parts 

 of the world are liable to be Ephestia-mie&iQdi, though (practically, 

 considered in the point of view of our own protection) this matter has 

 long since ceased to be material to us in England and Scotland, from 

 the widespread prevalence of the trouble. Up to the present date I 

 am not aware of it being as widely dispersed in Ireland. 



The rapidity of the spread of this Ephestia kuhniella, the " Medi- 

 terranean Mill Moth," is probably rightly ascribed to " the higher and 

 more equable temperature maintained in modern mills, a condition 

 highly favourable to the development of the insect " (F. H. C). 



Prevention and Kemedies. — One point on which something might 

 certainly be done is to check ingress and egress of the pests in egg and 

 caterpillar condition. It is not only in mills that the infestation is 

 present, but the caterpillars are to be found in flour at bakers', and 

 are constantly transported to and fro with eggs and cocoons in and on 

 sacks of flour, and likewise in and on the empty sacks which have 

 carried infested flour, and which, when sent on without due disinfection, 

 transmit the pest constantly more and more throughout the country. 

 The caterpillars have almost an extraordinary power of pervading 

 every part of a building. In Bulletin 1, on the Flour Moth, issued by 

 the Ontario Department of Agriculture in 1889, p. 11 (as a working 

 example of this), an account is given of a large warehouse, some 25 ft. 

 wide, 75 ft. long, and four storeys high, which became literally alive 

 with moths in the course of six months, "while thousands upon 



