6 BULLETIlSr 783, U. S, DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Correspondents also note that the^ oldest cacao beans are, as a rule, 

 the most heavily infested. 



May 6, 1914, 10 moths of this- species-were placed in a rearing jar 

 with cacao beans as food. One moth was still alive on May 27, but 

 was found dead the following day, having lived 21 days without food. 

 According to Dyar the tongue is completely absent in this moth, so 

 it is unable to feed. No evidence of insect attack could be noted 

 through the glass jar when examined on July 9, but when some of the 

 beans, which had become moldy on account of the moist weather dur- 

 ing this period, were opened, a mature larva and a cocoon contain- 

 ing a pupa were found. Attack was confined chiefly to beans that 

 already had been injured more or less. 



March 8, 1916, Dr. Carl Michel, United States Public Health Serv- 

 ice, San Juan, P. R., furnished moths and pupse, the latter in webbed- 

 up rice, and stated that the species infests warehouses in Porto Eico, 

 that the eggs are laid in sacks of cereals, and that the developing larvae 

 render the cereals unfit for human consumption. The merchants at 

 San Juan claim that the rice is infested before it reaches that port 

 and that nearly all of it is concentrated at New Orleans or Galveston 

 for shipment. The claim is not made, however, although it is in- 

 ferred, that the insect is shipped from the United States, but it 

 seems more probable that the moth has been established in Porto Rico 

 for a number of j'^ears. Agents of the Bureau of Entomology spent 

 much time from 1908 to 1916 investigating insects injurious to rice 

 and other stored products from New Orleans and Galveston, but they 

 did not observe this insect at these or other ports. It may have been 

 introduced recently through carelessness in vessels returning from 

 Porto Rico containing foodstuffs on which it was able to subsist. On 

 March 22 Dr. Michel sent additional specimens of larvae in infested 

 rice. The larvae were all paler than were those reared from darker 

 substances, such as chocolate and similar products, and as a result it 

 was noted that the piliferous tubercles were plainly visible, whereas 

 in the darker forms they were scarcely noticeable. September 12, 

 1916, numerous larva? and some pupse of this species were received in 

 rice from the same source. The correspondent stated that some of 

 the moths had been breeding continuously since the previous Feb- 

 ruary, and that thej^ thrived at room temperatures. 



May 19, 1916, samples of rice infested by this species were again 

 received, and on September 18 the Bureau of Chemistry reported 

 that this specific shipment of rice was California grown, milled in 

 San Francisco, and shipped via Panama Canal to New York City 

 where it was held for about 30 days, and then reshipped to San Jaun, 

 P. R., where upon its arrival the buyers rejected it because the 

 market had declined, but not on account of " vermin," as the rice 

 was apparently in sound condition. The rice was kept until October 



