11 
now being conducted go to prove at least four generations a year. 
The species has been carried through all its stages this spring in about 
eight weeks. It appears to require a certain amount of moisture, such 
as is present in ‘“‘heated” grain or hay, for its full development. 
No danger need be apprehended from injuries by this insect if 
material upon which it is likely to feed be kept in a clean, dry place. 
Almost without exception the cases of damage attributable to it have 
occurred in cellars, upon floors, in outhouses, or in places where refuse 
vegetable matter has accumulated. 
THE FLOUR BEETLES. 
Several little flattened beetles, of a shining brown color and similar 
appearance generally, so frequently occur in bags and barrels of flour 
as to have earned the popular title of “flour weevils.” They live upon 
cereal and other seeds and various other 
stored products, but generally prefer flour 
and meal and patented articles of diet con- 
taining farinaceous matter. 
Their eggs are often deposited in the flour 
in mills, and these and the larvie they pro- 
duce being minute and pale in color readily 
escape notice; but after the flour has been 
barreled or placed in bags and left unopened 
for any length of time the adult beetles 
make their appearance, and in due course 
the flour is ruined, for when the insects have !"'6-8.—Pyralisfarinalis: a, eggmass; 
time to propagate they soon convert the lear ean kt Bele 
g yo within; d, larva, dorsa 
flour into a gray, useless mass. A part of view; e, pupa—all enlarged (au- 
the annoyance to purchaser, dealer, and — ‘"S*/"s‘tation). 
manufacturer is due to the fact that the insects are highly offensive, a few 
specimens being sufficient to impart a disagreeable and persistent odor 
to the infested substance. 

THE CONFUSED FLOUR BEETLE (T77ribolium confusum Duv.). 
The most important of the flour beetles is the one above mentioned. 
It is about the same size as the true grain weevils, is of nearly univer- 
sal occurrence in grain of all kinds following the attacks of the latter 
species with which it is very often associated. Its principal damage, 
however, appears to be to flour and other patented articles of diet con- 
taining starchy matter; in fact, it is without doubt the insect most 
injurious to prepared cereal foods, if we except the Mediterranean flour 
moth, which fortunately is as yet confined to a limited territory. 
Although known for many years in Europe as an enemy to stored 
cereals, seeds, and even as a pest in museums, it was not until the fall 
of 1893 that it was recognized in this country as a species distinct from 
others ofits kind. In less than two years from the time of its first recog- 
nition here, this insect had been reported as injurious in nearly every 
