14 
in store. In its habits it does not differ appreciably from other flour 
beetles, being much more injurious to ground products than to the seed 
of cereals. 
THE MEAL-WORMS. 
Two species of beetles and their larve, the latter known under the 
familiar name of ‘‘meal-worms,” attract attention by reason of their 
jiarge size and somewhat serpent-like appearance when present in open 
flour barrels, feed boxes, and bags of bran or meal. They are among 
the many species that develop in refuse grain dust and mill products 
that are carelessly per- 
mitted to accumulate 
in the dark corners and 
out-of-the-way places 
in flouring mills, bak- 
eries, feed stores, pig- 
eon lofts, and stables. 
The two species are 
about equally common 
and do not differ ma- 
terially in their habits, 
and, although abun- 
dant enough wherever 
grain is stored, do lit- 
tle or no damage to 
seed stock, being found 
2 mostly in corn meal 
Fig. 13.—Tenebrio molitor: a, larva; b, pupa, c, female beetle; a, and other ground prod- 
egg, with surrounding case; e eats b, ec, d, about twice ucts. They are also 
natural size; ¢, more enlarged (original). 5 ae 2 
sometimes injurious to 
ship biscuit. As with some of the other storehouse insects, the Tene- 
brios are not an unmixed evil, for they have a commercial value to the 
bird fancier, being used as food for nightingales, mocking birds, and 
other feathered pets. 

THE YELLOW MEAL-WoORM ( Tenebrio molitor Linn.). 
The above-mentioned species is. the meal-worm most often referred 
to in scientific literature, and as it is in the larval stage that it is 
best known, the name yellow meal-worm has been suggested to distin- 
guish it from the other species, which is much darker in color, The 
larva (see fig. 13, a) is cylindrical, long, and slender, attaining a length 
of upward of an inch, and being about eight times as long as broad. 
It is waxen in appearance, resembling a wireworm. In color it is 
yellow, shading to darker ochreous toward each end and near the 
articulation of each joint. The anal extremity terminates in two minute 
spines. The pupa ()) is white, and the adult insect, as will be seen by 
reference to the illustration, resembles on a large scale one of the flour 
et ee die 
