THE ANGOUMOIS GRAIN-MOTH. 505 



the wing, in the room where the corn was kept. He also 

 brought to me two large ears of corn from the infected heap. 

 At that time, I was not aware that the fly-weevil attacked 

 Indian corn, at least in New England ; and these ears, 

 appearing sound externally, were rolled up in several sheets 

 of strong brown paper, securely tied, and laid away for 

 future examination. They were forgotten, however, till De- 

 cember, 1845, when, upon opening the parcel, I found a 

 great quantity of dead moths, and several living ones, in the 

 paper. Every kernel appeared to have been perforated, and 

 many of the kernels had three or four holes in each of them. 

 Some contained the insect in the worm state, and some the 

 fully formed chrysalis. The moths differed from the Vir- 

 ginia fly-weevil only in being rather larger, with blackish 

 fore legs, and in having a more conspicuous blackish spot 

 near the tips of the feelers, showing them to be merely 

 varieties of the same species. This remark seems to be 

 confirmed by the now well-known fact, that the fly-weevil, 

 at the South and West, attacks corn as well as wheat, and 

 by the statement of Mr. Owen, that " the insect found in 

 corn does not differ from that found in wheat ; it is usually," 

 says he, " somewhat larger than the specimens from wheat, 

 but this may be owing to the greater amount of nourishment 

 which the corn has afforded." Moreover, we learn from 

 the works of Olivier and of Bonafous,* that maize also 

 suffers from the Angoumois moth in France. It is related 

 that Kalm, the Swedish traveller, on finding some bugs in 

 pease that he had carried home from this country, was 

 filled with alarm, " fearing lest he might thereby introduce 

 so great an evil into his beloved Sweden." With some- 

 thing of the same feeling, on finding what the insects were 

 that had been depredating in my friend's corn-bin, I put 

 the two ears of corn into a large glass jar, and corked it 

 tight, to prevent the escape of any moths that might be 



* Encyclop^die Methodique, Insectes, Tom. IV. p. 121. Histoire du Mais, pat 

 M. Bonafous, p. 111. 



64 



