8 
FLOUR AND MEAL MOTHS. 
Four or five species of moths, in addition to the one just mentioned, 
are injurious to grain in store, but are more prevalent in mill products, 
and are troublesome as well by their depredations in a variety of articles. 
THE MEDITERRANEAN FLOUR MOTH (LZphestia kuehniella Zell.). 
The most important of all mill insects is the Mediterranean flour moth. 
This scourge of the flour mill, as it is called, has attracted much atten- 
tion of recent years and has been the subject of many articles and 
bulletins. Until the year 1877, when the moth was discovered in a flour 
mill in Germany, it was comparatively unknown. In later years it 
invaded Belgium and Holland, and in 1886 appeared in England. Three 
years later it made its appearance in destructive numbers in Canada. 
In 1892 it was reported injurious in mills im California, and in 1895 in 
New York and Pennsylvania. 
That the Mediterranean flour moth has become so formidable in recent 
years is due to the higher and more equable temperature maintained 
in modern mills, a condition highly favorable to the development of the 
insect. 


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fe, m\ 
Gf || ss. 
j 7) A 

Fia.4.—Ephestia kuehniella: a, moth; b, same from side, resting; Fic. 5.—Larva, 
c, larva; d, pupa—enlarged; e, abdominal joint uf larva—more dorsal view 
enlarged. (original). 
Previous to the Canadian invasion this moth was generally believed 
to have reached Europe from America, but as a matter of fact the 
species had not been recognized here until 1889. Danysz has traced 
its occurrence in this country back as far as 1880. He mentions also 
an outbreak in Constantinople in 1872 and presents evidence that it 
was probably known in Europe as early as 1840, The species is recorded 
from specimens in collections from North Carolina, Alabama, New Mex- 
ico, Colorado, Mexico, and Chile. Of the last-mentioned localities it 
seems to be known as injurious only in Mexico. There is evidence to 
show that it probably occurs also in Australia. 
The adult moth has a wing expanse of a little less than an inch; 
the fore-wings are pale leaden gray, with transverse black markings of 
the pattern shown in the accompanying illustration (fig. 4, a); the hind- 
wings are dirty whitish, semitransparent, and with a darker border. 
The caterpillar, illustrated at fig.4 c, e, and at fig. 5, is whitish and 
hairy. The chrysalis, shown at fig. 4 d, is reddish brown. 
