106 



Insect in Corn. 



Vol. XL 



learned that the corn of any of his neigh- 

 bours had been similarly attacked. 



"It is impossible to estimate the amount ot 

 injury that might be done to the great staple 

 of our country by the depredations of this 

 insect, should it widely extend through our 

 corn-cribs." 



Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 16th, 1846. 



Respected Friend, — Your letter of the 

 14th instant, reminds me of the pleasure 

 that I took in reading those numbers of the 

 Farmers' Cabinet which you had the kind- 

 ness to send to me from the 15th of March, 

 1844, to the 15th of IVIay, 1845, inclusive. 



You have some reason to be alarmed at 

 the appearance of the insects in the corn- 

 crib of your friend Haywood. Should they 

 prevail to any extent in our country, they 

 Tvould prove a terrible scourge; now more 

 than ever, since the potatoe is likely to fail 

 us entirely, and we have nothing to supply 

 its place save corn. Bread is the staft' ot 

 ■Jife: we must lake care that it be not 

 broken. 



The little dun-coloured moth which you 

 eaw come forth from a kernel of corn in 

 your hand, is " the fly-weevil, that destroys 

 wheat" in Virginia and some of the Southern 

 and Western States. Shall I give it a more 

 fearful name, by acknowledging that it is the 

 Angoumois moth, the same insect that ap- 

 peared in the provinces of La Vendee and 

 Angoumois, in the west of France, more 

 than a hundred years ago; that it continued 

 to increase there for many years, till its 

 ravages in 1760, attracted the attention ot 

 the government, when it was found to swarm 

 in all the wheat fields and granaries of these 

 provinces; when by its ravages the people 

 were not only deprived of their principal 

 staple, wherewith they were wont to pay 

 their annual rents, their taxes, and their 

 tithes, but were threatened with starvation, 

 from the want of good and wholesome bread. 

 Let us hope to be saved from the like ca- 

 lamity. 



The great and good Linnseus, was filled 

 with alarm on finding the pea-weevil in a 

 parcel of peas received from America, fear- 

 ing that he might be the means of intro- 

 ducing into his beloved Sweden so great an 

 evil. How much more have we reason to 

 dread the spreading of this Angoumois moth 

 in our own country. 



You will find some account of this moth 

 in my Treatise on Insects Injurious to Ve- 

 getation, published in 1842. At that time 

 the habits of the insect were not known to 

 me from personal observation ; all my at- 

 tempts to obtain samples of infected grain 

 containing living specimens, having been 



ineffectual, and my numerous letters and 

 applications on the subject having remained 

 unnoticed. Since then I have been more 

 fortunate, and have had the insects in all 

 their stages, living under my own eye. It 

 does not seem to be generally known that 

 this insect attacks maize, or corn, as we 

 call it, as well as wheat. The tact was 

 made known to me nearly two years ago. 

 A friend in Worcester, Mass., told me that 

 he found some corn that had been stored in 

 his garret some time, contained insects in 

 it ; and he brought me two ears of this corn 

 for examination. The corn, then appearing 

 to be sound externally, was rolled up in se- 

 veral sheets of strong brown paper, and was 

 tied securely and laid aside in a safe place. 

 Some months afterwards, on opening the 

 parcel, I found nearly a gill of dead moths 

 in the paper, and three or four living ones. 

 Every kernel appeared to have been perfo- 

 rated, and many had three or four holes in 

 each of them. Some contained the insect 

 in the worm state, and some had the chry- 

 salis fully formed within them. The two 

 ears were then put into a wide-mouthed 

 glass bottle, which was corked tight, so as 

 to prevent the future escape of the moths 

 that might be developed from the worms 

 and chrysalids remaining in the kernels. 

 The moths have continued to come forth, 

 and, as they were prevented from escaping, 

 they paired and laid their eggs upon the 

 corn in the bottle. Two broods have been 

 produced in a single year; the first brood 

 coming out of the corn early in March, and 

 the second in September and October. Pro- 

 bably the appearance of the first brood was 

 accelerated by the insects being kept in a 

 warm room during the winter. 



Having made accurate drawings of the 

 insects in their several states, and written a 

 scientific description of them, I have been 

 trying to collect the statistics relative to 

 them, in those parts of the country where 

 they have heretofore appeared, with the de- 

 sign of drawing up for publication a memoir 

 on the history of this depredator. Commu- 

 nications on the subject, addressed to me, 

 will be very acceptable. 



The moths are easily killed by the fumes 

 of burning sulphur, and of charcoal, by 

 steam, and by moderate heat otherwise ap- 

 plied. From experiments made in France, 

 it would seem that violent agitation of the 

 grain, continued during several hours, will 

 destroy the insects in all their stages. I 

 have, however, much more confidence in 

 the application of heat, by drying the dam- 

 aged grain in an oven or a kiln, heated to 

 160 degrees of Fahrenheit, in which the 

 grain should remain during twelve hours. 



