10 
special fondness for the embryo of wheat and pass from grain to grain, 
devouring only the germ, and attaching them together as they go. As 
they also deposit large quantities of excrement which becomes attached 
to the silk it will be 
seen that they injure 
both for seed and for 
food many times the 
amount of grain actu- 
ally consumed. 
Experiment shows 
that the insect is 
capable of passing 
through all its sev- 
Fie. 6.—Plodia interpunctella: a, moth; b, chrysalis; ec, caterpillar; eral stages, from ess 
f same dorsal view—somewhat enlarged; d, head, and e, first tO adult, in five 
abdominal segment of caterpillar—more enlarged (author's illus- weeks, which fur- 
tration). ; 3 ; Rages 
nishes a possibility of 
six or more generations in a well-heated atmosphere, although in a 
moderately cool granary or other storehouse four or five broods is 
probably the normal number per annum. 

THE MEAL SNOUT-MOTH (Pyralis farinalis Linn.). 
This meal moth often occurs where edible products are housed. It 
is slightly larger than the species previously mentioned, having a wing 
expanse of nearly an inch. The ground color is light brown, with red- 
dish reflections; the thorax and the dark patches at its sides and near 
the tips of the fore-wings are darker brown. The wavy, transverse 
lines of the wings are whitish, and form the pattern indicated in the 
illustration (fig. 7,a). The caterpillar and chrysalis are figured, twice 
natural size, at b and c, re- 
spectively. In its habits 
it somewhat resembles the 
preceding species. The 
caterpillar constructs pe- 
culiar long tubes of silk 
and particles of the meal 
or other food upon which 
it lives. It infests cereals 
of all kinds and conditions, Fia.7.—Pyralis farinalis: a, adult moth; b, Jarva; ce, pupa in 
in the kernel or in the form cocoon—twice natural size (author's illustration). 

of flour, meal, bran, or straw. It also attacks other seeds and dried 
plants, injures hay after the manner of the related clover-hay worm, 
and has been reported injurious to potatoes. 
The life history of the meal snout-moth has not until recently been 
properly understood, the efforts to rear and observe it having always. 
proved unsatisfactory. Certain European writers have expressed the 
belief that the species is biennial in development, but experiments 
