128 THE PESTS OF THE FAEM. 



like satin, and are marbled with white or gray, light brown, and 

 dark brown or blackish spots, and there is always one dark square 

 spot near the middle of the outer edge. Its hind-wings are black- 

 ish. Some of these winged moths appear in May, others in July 

 and August, at which times they lay their eggs ; for there are two 

 broods of them in the course of the year. The young from the 

 first laid eggs come to their growth and finish their transforma- 

 tions in six weeks or two months; the others live through the 

 winter, and turn to winged moths in the following spring. The 

 young moth-worms do not burrow into the grain, as has been as- 

 serted by some writers, who seem to have confounded them with 

 the Angoumois grain-worms ; but, as soon as they are hatched, 

 they begin to gnaw the grain and cover themselves with the frag- 

 ments, which they line with a silken web. As they increase in size 

 they fasten together several grains with their webs, so as to make a 

 larger cavity, wherein they live. After a while, becoming uneasy 

 in their confined habitations, they come out, and wander over the 

 grain, spinning their threads as they go, till they have found a 

 suitable place wherein to make their cocoons. Thus, wheat, rye, 

 barley, and oats, all of which they attack, will be found full of lumps 

 of grains cemented together by these grain- worms ; and when they 

 are very numerous, the whole surface of the grain in the bin will be 

 covered with a thick crust of webs and of adhering grains. These 

 destructive grain-worms are really soft and naked caterpillars, of a 

 cylindrical shape, tapering a little at each end, and are provided 

 with sixteen legs, the first three pairs of which are conical and 

 jointed, and the others fleshy and wart-like. When fully grown, 

 they measure four or five tenths of an inch in length, and are of a 

 light ochre or buff color, with a reddish head. When about six 

 weeks old they leave the grain, and get into cracks, or around the 

 sides of corn-bins, and each one then makes itself a little oval pod 

 or cocoon, about as large as a grain of wheat. The insects of the 

 first brood, as before said, come out of their cocoons, in the winged 

 form, in July and August, and lay their eggs for another brood : 

 the others remain unchanged in their cocoons, through the winter, 

 and take the chrysalis form in March or April following. Three 

 weeks afterwards, the shining brown chrysalis forces itself part way 

 out of the cocoon, by the help of some little sharp points on its tail, 

 and bursts open at the other end, so as to allow the moth therein 

 confined to come forth. 



There is another grain-moth, which, at various times, has been 



