20 



Prof. William Trelease, of the Shaw School of Botany, St. Louis, 

 exhibited at the February (1896) meeting of the Academy of Sci- 

 ence of St. Louis (79) specimens of a curious silk fabric taken 

 from the ceiling of a corn- storing loft in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 

 by Dr. Francis Eschauzier. Although specimens of th& insect re- 

 sponsible for the silk were not secured, it was presumed that it 

 WHS made by larvse of the Mediterranean flour moth. 



Besides the articles already mentioned, several reviews and 

 notices have appeared in other publications, principally in "Insect 

 Life," all of which are mentioned in the list at the end of this 

 paper. 



DISTEIBUTION AND DISSEMINATION. 



As has been already stated, Ephestia kuehniella was first 

 brought to the attention of scientists in 1877. Prof. Zeller, two 

 years later, when he described it, stated on insufficient grounds 

 that in all probability the insect came from North America. It was 

 supposed to have been introduced in Belgium, in 1884, on American 

 cereals. Regarding its appearance in mills near Bremworde in 

 1885, it is stated positively that the insect was introduced in 

 that locality on American wheat. This being in the Belgium and 

 Bremworde mills at the time of the outbreak, seemed to suggest 

 to those concerned that the pest must be of American origin. 

 The fact of the case is, that the pest was not known in North 

 America in destructive numbers prior to 1889, at which time it 

 appeared in Canada. The moth has been known much longer in 

 Europe than in America, but the extreme readiness with which 

 Europeans attribute new pests to this country, has been exhibited 

 more than once. 



Miss Ormerod did not find EphesUa kuehniella listed in Grote's 

 check list of the moths of North America for 1882, and was there- 

 fore of the opinion that the pest came to England from Europe 

 or the East, rather than from America. Mr. Sydney Klein, in 

 the "Mark Lane Express," 14th November, 1887, in speaking of 

 the English outbreak, says the pest was introduced into the Lon- 

 don warehouse where he carried on his observations, in some 

 meal shipped from Fiume, on the Adriatic, in 1885. I might 

 state hete, that Mr. Klein mentions this pest as the scourge of 

 the Mediterranean ports, but does not give any date as to its first 

 appearance there. 



In 1890 Miss Ormerod made inquiries regarding the distribu- 

 tion of the moth, and received a letter from Dr. Lindeman, of 

 Moscow, stating that he was not aware of its being present 

 in Southern Eussia, and that it had not been observed in Central 

 Russia up to that time. 



Mr. J. Danysz, of Paris, has made a careful study of the out- 

 break in France, and states that its first occurrence there is re- 

 corded prior to its first appearance in England. He does not 

 think it safe to point to any one country as the original home of 

 the pest, and places no reliance upon the idea that the insect was 



