230 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



for their growth, three months or longer. The pupal stage 

 lasts about two weeks. Under normal conditions the 

 beetles appear in the spring of the year, but where the meal- 

 worms are being reared in the house the adults are appear- 

 ing at any and all times. Normally, there seems to be but 

 one generation a year. 



The yellow meal-worm is a common species in the Old 

 World, but it has been widely distributed over the earth 

 through the activities of commerce. It was purposely 

 introduced into Chili to furnish food for domestic birds. 



The larvae of this beetle are found in corn-meal and flour 

 the world over, where they can be made to breed almost 

 indefinitely. There are on record several instances in 

 which these larvae have evidently been swallowed by 

 people while eating corn-meal mush, or other materials in 

 which the larvae live. It is hard to see how the larvae 

 withstand the heat generated in cooking the food. In 

 addition to this, the person eating the food must necessa- 

 rily swallow it with very little mastication in order for the 

 larvae to enter the stomach whole, as without doubt they 

 sometimes have. 



An interesting case is related in Insect Life in which two 

 of these larvae were ejected from the stomach of a woman. 

 Evidently the movements of the larvae in the stomach 

 had caused nausea and finally vomiting. 



An interesting and rather humorous account of the 

 occurrence of this beetle in a pincushion on the dresser of a 

 hotel bedroom has come down to us also through Insect 

 Life. A guest, who had occupied the bedroom, com- 

 plained in the morning to his host that the room was 

 haunted. The host, of course, pooh-poohed the idea, but 

 the occupant persisted in his story and related how the 



