GRAIN-MOTHS. 497 



on its forehead; its long and narrow wings cover its back 

 like a sloping roof, are a little turned up behind, and are 

 edged with a wide fringe. Its fore wings are glossy, like 

 satin, and are marbled with white or gray, light brown, 

 and dark brown or blackish spots, and there is always one 

 dark square spot near the middle of the outer edge. Its 

 hind wings are blackish. Some of these winged moths 

 appear in May, others in July and August, at which times 

 they lay their eggs ; for there are two broods of them in 

 the course of the year. The young from the first-laid eggs 

 come to their growth and finish their transformations in 

 six weeks or two months ; the others live through the win- 

 ter, and turn to winged moths in the following spring. 

 The young moth-worms (Plate VII. Fig. 6) do not bur- 

 row into the grain, as has been asserted by some writers, 

 who seem to have confounded them with the Angoumois 

 grain- worms ; but, as soon as they are hatched, they begin 

 to gnaw the grain and cover themselves with the fragments, 

 which they line with a silken web. As they increase in 

 size, they fasten together several grains with their webs 

 (Plate VII. Fig. 7), so as to make a larger cavity, wherein 

 they live. After a while, becoming uneasy in their confined 

 habitations, they ' come out, and wander over the grain, 

 spinning their threads as they go, till they have found a 

 suitable place wherein to make their cocoons. Thus wheat, 

 rye, barley, and oats, all of which they attack, will be found 

 full of lumps of grains cemented together by these corn- 

 worms, as they are sometimes called ; and when they are 

 very numerous, the whole surface of the grain in the bin 

 will be covered with a thick crust of webs and of adhering 

 grains. 



These destructive corn-worms are really soft and naked 

 caterpillars, of a cylindrical shape, tapering a little at each 

 end, and are provided with sixteen legs, the first three pairs 

 of which are conical and jointed, and the others fleshy and 

 wart-like. When fully grown, they measure four or five 

 63 



