Pyialidae 



seems to defy attempts to eradicate it. Each female lays from 

 six to seven hundred eggs, and the process of generation seems, 

 where buildings are warm, to go on continuously. Moving and 

 airing the wheat does no good, as the insect seems to multiply 

 in the pipes in which flour is transported in a mill from one place 

 to another by air-pressure. Much damage is done by the habit 

 which the larvae pos- 

 sess of gnawing the 

 fine gauze of the 

 screens in a flour- 

 mill. 



When the insect 

 has once established 

 itself in an elevator or 

 mill, the only remedy 

 appears to be to shut 

 down, and thorough- 

 ly clean the place from 

 top to bottom, and 

 keep shut down and 

 go on cleaning until 

 not a nook or cranny 

 is known to harbor 

 the larvae, cocoons, or 

 moths. The accom- 



FIG. 233. a, Enlarged view of cocoon of Flour- 

 moth from below, showing pupa through thin silk 

 which was attached to a beam. f>, Cocoon viewed 

 from above, with meal clinging to it. (After Riley, 

 "Insect Life," Vol. II, p. 167.) 



panying illustrations, 

 which are taken from the pages of "Insect Life," Vol. II, will 

 enable the student to recognize this creature in its various stages 

 of development. 



Thus far it has not become universally distributed throughout 

 the country, but it has appeared in alarming numbers in some 

 parts of Canada and New England. In England, Germany, and 

 Belgium its attacks have been the subject of frequent comment. 

 It shares an unenviable reputation with another species of the 

 same genus, which we shall presently speak of, and with a spe- 

 cies of Plodia, of which we shall also have something to say. 



" Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame ; 

 Each to his passion ; what 's in a name? " 



HELEN HUNT JACKSON. Vanity of Vanities. 



