( Hii ) 



them. I then placed them under a large glass shade on a 

 polished wooden surface with no perceptible outlet, but it 

 was no use ; the corners and ceiling of my room were within 

 a week studded with their cocoons, and every day specimens 

 of the larvae were discovered in different parts of the house, 

 from top to bottom ; in fact, they increased and wandered to 

 such an alarming extent that I had to give up keeping them. 

 The colony was therefore delivered over to the tender mercies 

 of about fifty game and Plymouth-rock hens, which are kept 

 at the bottom of my garden. The evident appreciation with 

 which these plump larvae were greeted at once suggested 

 a remedy for exterminating those in the warehouse ; a great 

 number of hens was therefore requisitioned from the neigh- 

 bourhood in the east-end, and it was encouraging to see the 

 enormous quantities consumed. But the hens began to flag 

 after ten minutes of gorging, and, although they were kept 

 in the warehouse for several weeks, the insects still continued 

 to increase and spread to other granaries. The case was 

 referred to many able entomologists and scientists, but no 

 effective remedy was forthcoming, and it seemed as though 

 many thousands of pounds' worth of goods would be involved. 

 Science having failed to find a remedy, it remained for 

 Nature to step in with those wonderful antidotes which she 

 always has in store for counteracting any over-production of 

 the fauna or flora under her charge. I held an inspection in 

 August, and brought away several of the full-fed larvae for 

 examination, as I noted some irregular markings which 

 had not been noticed before. These larvae seemed to pupate 

 quite regularly, and I did not suspect the state of the case 

 till I went down again at the beginning of September. No 

 sooner had I entered the warehouses than I noticed a most 

 extraordinary change in the appearance of the large piles of 

 flour. On closer examination I found this appearance was 

 caused by enormous numbers of a small black fly, the 

 ovipositor of the female of which clearly showed that it 

 belonged to the Ichneumonida ; and, upon examining several 

 of the larvae, the majority of which had markings on 

 their backs, the startling fact was established that Nature 

 had come to the rescue and provided the remedy herself. It 



