714 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



very distinct ; they have a proboscis, which has three or four joints, which 

 they contract or extend like an opera-gUiss. From the head, which is 

 somewhat roundish, they taper gradually off toward the tail, which is 

 scarcely half the diameter of the middle of their body, and ends in an 

 obtuse, claw-like point. At a short distance from the end of the tail is 

 an orifice surrounded by an elevated fleshy edge ; from this orifice the 

 worms discharge their eggs. The back of these old worms is nearly 

 opaque, and appears jointed or annular ; the number of joints or rings 

 is from twenty-five to thirty. The belly-side is more transparent, and 

 strings of ova can be distinctly seen through almost the whole length 

 of the worm to the orifice by which the eggs are discharged." Those 

 in the cavities of the mature grain are generally J^- or Jg inch long, 

 milk-white, and semi-transparent. Alter laying all their eggs the 

 parent worms soon die, and in a few days they decay and fall to pieces; 

 but such is not the case at an earlier period of life, for after being dried, 

 and appearing quite dead, on the application of moisture they become 

 as lively as they were at first, and thus for five years and eight 

 months Mr. Bauer was able to re-animate the worms by immersion, 

 but it required a longer period as the time lengthened, and after that 

 they died ; other examples bred by him retained their reviviscent qual- 

 ities for six years and one month. It seems probable that the glutinous 

 substance in which they are enveloped preserves their vitality. They 

 may be kept alive for three months in water. 



"It appears from Mr. Bauer's investigations that the cavities of the 

 grain are at first filled with a white fibrous substance, formed by gluten 

 into balls of a silky nature. In water they instantly dissolve, and ex- 

 hibit hundreds of minute worms, which become animated in less than a 

 quarter of an hour when moistened, and the grains eventually assumed 

 a dark-brown color, and were as hard as wood." 



In some grains approaching maturity only one worm was found with 

 the cluster of eggs, in others there were three (Fig. 8), the section of a 

 grain exhibiting some worms and multitudes of eggs. The eggs come 

 forth in strings of five or six together, and are detached in water ; the 

 young worms can then be seen through the transparent skin. (Fig. 8.) 

 In about an hour and a half after the egg is laid in water the young 

 worm begins to extricate itself, which it took one of them an hour and 

 twelve minutes to accomplish. 



INJURING STORED GRAIN. 



The Angoumois Grain-Moth, Gelechia cerealella Linn. (Plate LXV, Figs. 7, 8.) 

 Devouring the interior of the stored grains of wheat and corn, and transforming, 

 \^ithiu the grain, a soft, thick, fleshy caterpillar. 



This destructive moth is found in granaries in this country, having 

 been introduced from Europe, where it has been* extremely destructive, 

 especially in the French province of Angoumois, from which it has de- 

 rived its common name. The first account of its occurrence in this 

 country was published in 1708. It was then destructive to stored grain 

 in Virginia, but was said to injure wheat forty years previous in North 

 Carolina. Harris also adds that the French naturalist, Bosc, in 1796, or 

 soon after, found this motli " so abundant in Carolina as to extinguish 

 a candle when he entered his granary in the night." Harris further 

 states that this grain-moth spread from North Carolina and Virginia 

 into Kentucky and Southern Ohio and Indiana, " and probably more or 

 less throughout the wheat region of the adjacent States, between the 



