Grain Moth ; Gut Worm, 237 



find you allude to a very different grain moth from the 

 one above mentioned — one which in the larva state feeds 

 like the curculio, within the grain ; this may prove, on 

 examination, to be the same, or at least analogous to that 

 species of the genus Yponomenta, which we are inform- 

 ed commits such ravages upon the grain in the south of 

 France. I do not recollect to have seen it. 



Mr. Brattle is no doubt correct in his statement about 

 the cut worms. I do not know where the parents depo- 

 sit their eggs, but as all insects, (however different may 

 be the food of their immature progeny from their own,) 

 in this important act consider the appetites of their off- 

 spring, and also their convenience, by placing them in 

 immediate contact with their food, it may be inferred that 

 the oviposit producing the cut worm, must be at or near 

 the roots of the grass, where it would be destroyed by 

 burning, as you have mentioned, or by exposing them to 

 the action of the frost by ploughing. 



I hope to have the honour, at a future day, when my 

 knowledge of insects shall be more mature, to commu- 

 nicate some observations to the highly useful society over 

 which you preside, as will be consistent with its views 

 towards promoting the agricultural knowledge of our 

 countrymen, which from obvious causes is becoming 

 **very day of more vital importance to them. 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Thomas Say, 

 Hon. Richard Peters. 



