70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [CHAP. x. 



Hartley and Blyth), appointed a Commissioner of the High 

 Court of Natal, to take my evidence in the cause of Smyth 

 v. Findlay. On Tuesday the 24th following, Mr. E. K. 

 Blyth attended with depositions which I read and signed 

 in his presence. Subjoined is a copy of my " Report on 

 Insect Presence," and also an extract from a confirmatory 

 report made by Mr. Oliver Janson doubly confirirfed by the 

 report of a representative of the Department of Agriculture, 

 Division of Entomology, Washington : 



" I have examined the contents of the box and bottle this 

 day submitted to me from yourselves, the bottle being under 

 seal of Messrs. Randle Brothers and Hudson, Durban, 

 Natal, &c., &c. I made my examination both with hand 

 magnifiers and microscope and found that in the very 

 small amount of insect presence in the wheat flour and 

 in the spirit or preservative fluid, there were two kinds 

 of beetles represented. One of these was the Tribal him 

 ferruginenm, popularly known as the Rusty-red flour 

 beetle (fig. 70). This is a small red-brown, or yellowish-red- 

 brown, beetle, about a sixth of an inch long, somewhat 

 parallel-sided and narrow in proportion to its length ; the 

 wing-cases striated longitudinally, and the antennae (or 

 horns) with a three-jointed club at the extremity. I 

 found this beetle present in all its stages of development ; 

 that is, as a comparatively long and narrow larva (grub or 

 maggot) ; in the chrysalis (pupa) state, in which it resembles 

 the beetle with its limbs folded beneath it until development 

 is complete ; and the perfect beetles. 



" I also found one specimen of what is called the Cadelle 

 in larval (grub or maggot) state. This is a pitchy-coloured 

 beetle, Trogosita mauritanica or Tenebroides mauritanicus, 

 rather larger than the kind above named, being about four 

 times longer. I examined the whole amount of insect 

 infestation sifted in my presence from the wheat flour 

 under consideration or taken out of the bottle of preserva- 

 tive fluid, and in the very small amount of insect presence 

 observable, I found nothing else to which the slightest 

 degree of importance could be attached. In reply to the 

 inquiry submitted to me, as to the possibility of the bags 

 of wheat flour under consideration having been infested 

 when they were shipped from New York, on or about 

 July the 5th, 1898 ; I can state that I fully believe the 

 flour could not then have been infested, as in such 

 case consequent on the well-known exceedingly favour- 

 able conditions for multiplication of insect presence, 



