No. 144 1 331 



eggs. The alucite des grains is the lepidoptera of which the 

 French speak as the Terrible ! Every year a formidable competi- 

 tor of man in the struggle for the bread of life. It made itself 

 memorable for all time, by causing a frightful famine at Angou- 

 mois in 1760. Duhamel and Tillet observed it at this epoch with 

 great care, and gave many interesting details of its habits. It is 

 of the genus phalena. The alucites lay their eggs in autumn in 

 the barns, and in the spring in the fields. Dr. Harpin, a member 

 of the Conseil General of the department of the Indre, say.s : '<In 

 twelve or fifteen of the departments in the middle and south of 

 'France, where corn is the staple culture, tlie standing wheat and 

 rye are attacked prior to their maturity by myriads of alucites, 

 the larvse of Avhich are lodged in the farinaceous substance of the 

 grain, which they replace with their excrements. The insects 

 pass through their various transformations within the protecting 

 envelope of the grain. When harvest comes, a fourth or a third, 

 and sometimes more of the ears are entirely devoured. Most of 

 the other grains although apparently intact, contain the genus of 

 the destructive insect. The larvae are so numerous, that when a 

 handful of grain or ears are squeezed a white and viscous fluid 

 issues out, which is composed of the bodies of the crushed insects. 

 The crushed husks remain flat and empty, and agglomerate to- 

 gether as if they had been wetted. The ravages of the alucites 

 in the granaries and barns reach such a point, that if the thresh- 

 ing and grinding is delayed a few months, three-fourths and some- 

 times seven eighths of the harvest are lost. The bread made of 

 such corn, especially when it is not suSiciently sifted, contains 

 the remains of the bodies and excrements of the insects. It has 

 a disagreeable and disgusting taste, which catches the throat. 

 The bread does not adhere together, but separates in water as 

 easily as a lump of earth. An epidemic malady in the throat, of 

 a very dangerous description, which had reigned of late years in 

 the countries ravaged by the alucites, is ascribed to the use of 

 this most unwholesome bread." 



Cecydomyia iritici, a little fly about the tenth of an inch long, has 

 often caused dearths in different nations of continental Europe. 

 The famine in Ireland in 1845, has of late been traced by some of 



