INSECTS ON BOARD SHIP. 139 



in. We need scarcely add, that for any purpose 

 grain which has been thus attacked is rendered 

 perfectly useless. 



Any one who has ever been on a long sea- 

 voyage will find it easy to supply us with another 

 example of a vegetable-food devouring larva. 

 The hard substances commonly called captain's 

 biscuits are the objects of attack, together with 

 flour, peas, and similar articles of food, and the 

 attacking insect is the larva of the meal-worm, 

 the entomological title of which is Tenebrio molitor. 

 In vain does the ship's cook, with all his art, pre- 

 pare a soup composed of the richest ingredients, 

 and calculated, as one would think, to gratify the 

 taste of the greatest epicure. The larvae have been 

 beforehand with him ; they have attacked and be- 

 come mixed with the flour or the peas ; and when 

 the soup which has cost him so much pains is 

 brought to table, not even the keen appetite of 

 seafaring people can reconcile them to it, for it 

 is full of the dead bodies of these larvae. So 

 likewise is the biscuit, and in disgust the guests 

 are compelled to confine their attention princi- 

 pally to such articles of food as are unpalatable 

 to their insect enemies. 



