166 



THE SO-CALLED MEDITERRANEAN FLOUR MOTH. 



{Ephestia kiihniella Zeller. ) 



Fig. 28.— Ephestia kuhniella: a, larva; b, pupa; c, adult— enlarged ; d, head and thoracic joints of 

 larva; c, abdominal joints of same— still more enlarged; /, moth from side, resting; g, front wing, 

 showing more important markings; h, venation of fore-wing; i, venation of hind-wing — somewhat 

 enlarged (a, 6, c, and e, original; d,f, g, h, and i, after Snellen;. 



This insect, wliich during the last few years has been doing so much 

 damage iu mills in Englaud, Belgium, and Germany, has during the 

 l^ast summer appeared iu destructive numbers on this continent. Dur- 

 ing August the attention of Mr. James Fletcher, Dominion entomologist 

 of Canada, was called to a serious outbreak of this pest in a Canadian 

 city,* which has recently been written up by Dr. P. H. Bryce, secretary 

 of the provincial board of health in Ontario, and issued in pamphlet 

 form in Bulletin No. 1 of this organization. We publish in this number, 

 under the nead of "Extracts from Correspondence" a letter from Mr. 

 Fletcher referring to this outbreak, which has suggested the desirabil- 

 ity of bringing together in condensed form a summary of the known 

 facts concerning this pest, and a few points suggested by our notes and 

 collections. 



It will be remembered that in Insect Life for March (Vol. I, p. 315) 

 we published a long letter from Miss Ormerod, in which she described 

 the damage done by this pest in England, and that in oivr reply {loc. 

 cit.) we stated that the species does not occur in the United States. In 

 the hurry of getting ready to leave for Paris we allowed this statement 

 to be made, notwithstanding the fact that we had had in the ISTational 

 Museum collection for some time specimens of a moth indistinguishable 

 from this species from A. W. Latimer, of Eufaula, Ala. On referring to 

 our notes we find also that we had seen specimens from Xorth Carolina 

 in the collection of M. Ragonot in Paris. These facts undoubtedly 

 prove the occurrence of the insect in N"orth America for at least some 

 years back. Up to the present time the species seems to have been 



We omit the precise locality by request. 



