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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



in May or June, and oviposit on " growing grain." According to 

 Mr. L. O. Howard, " it lays its eggs only on hard grain. After the 

 time of harvest, the moth flies out from the granaries to the wheat 

 fields and lays its eggs upon grains of wheat in the shocks." 



The "thousands of small white millers seen coming out of the wheat- 

 sheaves in the barn " at the time of threshing during November, in 

 Montgomery county, Pa. (in the extreme southeastern portion of the 

 State, latitude about 40°), were probably of the third brood. Their 

 larvae were undoubtedly operating within the wheat at the September 

 threshing, but had not sufficiently advanced to have injured the kernels 

 perceptibly. A portion of this brood would, perhaps, hibernate in the 

 larval stage, to appear the following spring. That it could not have 

 been the pupae alone which clogged the teeth of the cylinder of the 

 thresher is evident from the statement made in regard to the subse- 

 quent heating of the grain. 



The Heated Grain. 



The statement in regard to the heat observed in the grain after it 

 had been threshed and put into sacks is an interesting one. The heat 

 was evidently the result of the friction attending the gnawing of the 

 interior of the hard-dried grain by the larvae contained within This 

 phenomenon, so far as I remember, has not been recorded before in 

 connection with the Angoumois moth, but has been several times men- 

 tioned in notices of our bean-weevils. It has been observed where the 

 common bean- weevil, Bruchus obtectus Say, was operating in dried 

 stored beans, and is not at all uncommon with a southern species of 

 bean- weevil, Bruchus Chinensis Linn, (formerly known as B. scute Hans 

 Fabr.j, which so often infests the "cow-pea" of the Southern States. 

 Mr. Howard has recorded an instance where the surrounding tempera- 

 ture of a paper bag containing about a quart of these beans being 71° 

 Fahr., a thermometer thrust within the beans rose 25° (to 96° Fahr.) in 

 a few minutes (Insect -Life, i, 1888, p. 59). 



Results of the Attack. 

 Not only is the yield of the flour very greatly diminished b\ the 

 operations of this insect, but the flour produced from infested grain is 

 decidedly unwholesome. A distinguished French savant has written 

 of it: "The bread made from wheat attacked by it, and especially 

 when the flour has not been suitably bolted, contains the debris of the 

 bodies and excrement of the insects. It has a disagreeable and loath- 

 some taste, which is very lasting. It is even said that a very danger- 



