13 



mological Society. In the first published account of this exhibi- 

 tion (II) it is stated that the larvae were in flour shipped from 

 America to Trieste, and thence to London; but later (20) Prof. 

 Cockerell states that although the larvee just referred to were 

 in flour from America, they were supposed to have come from 

 some badly infested Trieste flour stored in the same warehouse. 



In the same year Mr. C. G. Barrett (12) reports breeding 

 moths oE Ephestia kueliniella from larvae sent him by Prof. 

 Zeller in 1879; refers to the moths of this species sent him by 

 Mr. Thompson for determination, noted above; and briefly de- 

 scribes the moth, noting ready means of distinguishing it from 

 that of other species of Ephestia and from Myelois ceraionice. 



November 2, 1887, Mr, Sidney T. Klein read notes of his ob- 

 servations on the habits of Ephestia kuehniella, at a meeting of 

 the Entomological Society of London (13). He discovered in 

 May a colony of these larvae in some large warehouses in the 

 east end of London, where the insect spread rapidly in spite of 

 the fact that the building was fumigated with sulphur and the 

 ceilirgs, walls, and floors were hot-limed. One entire warehouse 

 M-as "literally smothered with larvae, and several hundred pounds' 

 worth of damage was done." Chickens introduced into the ware- 

 house gorged themselves with the larvae. Some interesting ob- 

 servations are reported concerning the habits of the larva, and it 

 is said that a small hymenopterous parasite (Bracon hrevicovnis 

 Wesm.) destroyed the pest by September. The same author 

 gives elsewhere (14) full details concerning a lot of flour from 

 Trieste infested with larvas of the flour moth, referring again to 

 the parasite, and in another connection (15) has an item con- 

 cerning the introduction of the flour moth into England. The 

 County of Middlesex Natural History and Science Society pub- 

 lished' a note by Mr. Archibald Geikie (17), in which he reported 

 the complete destruction of Ephestia kuehniella by the same 

 little bracouid r/ientioned by Mr. Klein, figuring the male and 

 female. He said, in substance, that he had noticed a black spot 

 on the back of the flour moth larvae which he had not observed 

 before, but paid no attention to it, thinking it a normal phenom- 

 enon in the development of the insect. Some weeks later he was 

 astonished to find on the sacks of flour, which had been covered 

 with Ephestia larvae, a great number of little black insects, and he 

 was of the opinion that the black spots he had seen were noth- 

 ing else than the eggs of Bracon hrevicornis. 



I will not call in question the correctness of this inference, as I 

 know nothing about the life history of the European braconids, 

 but will simply say in this connection that our two American 

 species, Bracon gelechioi Ashm. and B. hebetor Say, do not lay 

 their eggs within the body of their host. I have made many 

 observations on this point, and have always found the egg either 

 on the body of the larva or attached to some material very near 

 it. Mr. £."6. Poulton, of London, England, has, however, shown 

 by experiment (21) that these black spots are simply testicles 

 in the process of evolution. Mr. J. Danysz, of Paris, France, 

 who seems to have overlooked Mr. Poulton's paper, has arrived 



