12 



CORN AND GRASS. 



Ill the course of the autumn, Mr. Edward A. Atmore, F.E.S., 

 writing to me from King's Lynn, Norfolk, mentioned tlie enormous 

 numbers of the Tinea (jranella (popularly known as the Little Grain 

 Moth or Wolf Moth) which had appeared there in the course of the 

 summer. This infestation has long been known as seriously hurtful 

 to stored corn ; and its history, and preventive measures regarding this 

 part of the mischief it causes, have been most fully written on by some 

 of our best British and European economic entomologists, from nearly 

 the beginning of the present century up to within two or three years of 

 the present time. In the later of these observations, however, 

 attention has been more fully directed to the extent to which this 

 infestation may be found in natural circumstances iii out-of-doors 

 localities, as well as in its artificial and chief head-quarters of stored 

 corn ; and in the past season, enquiry was sent to myself as to the 

 nature of attack to the inside of ripe corn-grains still in the ear, which 

 might, I think (if further followed up), prove to be due to the larvae or 

 catei'pillars of this Little Grain Moth. 



The note sent me on the 4th of October by Mr. E. A. Atmore, 

 from King's Lynn, was as follows : — " Tinea (jranella simply appeared 

 in swarms in granaries about the town. I have never before seen 

 anything like such numbers of any one species of moth in my 

 experience. When these swarms emerged it was almost impossible 

 for the men to work in the granaries. The stored grain must have 

 suffered from the attack." 



Mr. Atmore being an experienced entomological observer, his note 

 of this unexampled appearance is of very practical value, and it may 

 be of use to give some of the main points of this grain infestation for 

 reference, in case it should be remarkably present again in the coming 

 year, and also as a help for observation of maggot attack within grain, 

 before carrying the sheaves. 



The Tinea (jranella, or Little Grain Moth, is about half to two-thirds 

 of an inch in spread of the fore wings ; these are somewhat narrow, 

 white, and marked with many brown spots, of which characteristically 

 six or seven lie along the fore edge of the wing, three of the largest of 

 these being respectively one at the base of the wing, and two others 

 before and beyond the middle. The fringes are brown varied with 

 white. The hinder wings are also narrow, and are of a mouse or 

 greyish colour with pale grey fringes. The moths may be found from 

 April to August. 



In granaries or corn -stores the method of attack is for the moth to 

 lay one or two of her very small yellowish white eggs on a grain of 

 corn. How many she has a capacity for laying is still uncertain. In 

 the words of Dr. Eitzema Bos, " Whilst according to Nordlinger the 

 number only amounts to thirty, Taschenberg speaks of it as being 



