( Hi ) 



The discussion was continued by Mr. Waterhouse, Dr. 

 Sharp, Mr. M'Lachlan, and others. 



Mr. Klein exhibited a number of living larvae of Ephestia 

 Kuhnietta, which he said had been recently doing great 

 damage to flour in a warehouse in the east of London. 



Papers read. 

 Mr. Sydney T. Klein read the following " Notes on Ephestia 

 Kuhnietta " : — 



"In May last I discovered a colony of this scourge of 

 Mediterranean ports in some large warehouses in the east- 

 end of London. There were over a thousand tons of flour 

 stored in close proximity, and, under my direction, great 

 efforts were made to prevent the larvae from spreading. In 

 spite of fumigating with sulphur and hot-liming the floors, 

 ceilings, and walls (practised continually for several days), 

 by which means enormous numbers of the imagines were 

 killed, they spread with great rapidity, until one entire ware- 

 house was literally smothered with larva?, and several 

 hundred pounds' worth of damage was done. The flour 

 was so intermingled with the larvae-threads that it was 

 rendered unfit for even pig or cattle food. The ova, which 

 seemed to be deposited by the imagines generally upon the 

 top of the sack, hatched within a few days of being laid, and 

 the larvae, at once burrowing through the sacking, com- 

 menced spinning long galleries in the flour, seldom, however, 

 going more than three inches from the exterior. I have 

 brought specimens of these galleries, the network very much 

 resembling wool. The larvae, which were full-fed in about 

 three weeks, then made their way to the surface, and could 

 be seen in myriads crawling along the floor and up the walls 

 of the warehouse, till they reached the angle where the roof 

 met the walls. There they spun compact silken cocoons, in 

 which they turned to the pupa-state. Their migratory 

 habits, when full-fed, were very extraordinary ; nothing 

 seemed to keep them within bounds. I had a colony of 

 some thousands at my bouse, in order to make experiments 

 how to exterminate them ; but I found that my breeding- 

 cages, with the finest meshed wire, were useless to restrain 



