affecting the Corn- Crops. 
83 
was black : the head is rather small and shining : the centre of 
the eyes is dark brown : the antennae are distinct, the tips dark : 
all the legs are pale, dark at the apex, the hinder pair spreading, 
and with the rump are ochreous, having a greenish tint, and this 
last segment has a darkish dilated line down the back : the under 
side is also of a dull pale greenish colour. Two of these cater- 
pillars spun loose webs, to which some of the grains and chaff 
were attached ; but they have not changed to pupae, and I fear 
they are dead. Having, however, made a drawing of the cater- 
pillar, I hope at some future time to ascertain the moth it ought 
to change to. 
Having now given the agriculturist an idea of the insects with 
which he has to contend in the field, I wish to turn his attention, 
as well as that of all persons engaged in the corn-trade, to the 
various species which are destined to live upon the grain after it 
is stored away in barns and granaries ; and if they were not prin- 
cipally confined to the latter, it would be a great inducement for 
stacking the corn. The ravages, however, made by these insects, 
may be justly attributed, I expect, in the first instance, to the im- 
portation of foreign corn ; and, secondly, to the same storehouses 
being employed for many successive years without any purifica- 
tion or attempt at cleanliness. We well know if our own dwellings 
be neglected, if the rooms are not aired, and the broom and 
brush be not frequently employed, that a house soon becomes a 
harbour for moths, beetles, spiders, earwigs, woodlice, and hosts 
of various insects, which destroy our clothes and furniture, and 
soon render the rooms untidy. If such be the case in a neglected 
house, what can be expected in a large apartment shut up for 
months together, filled with articles on which numerous insects 
feed, under a regular and comparatively high temperature, badly 
ventilated, and where the walls and roof are never purified by 
whitewashing, or the floor ever scrubbed with hot water? If it 
were desirable to breed the corn-destroying insects, more certain 
means could not be adopted than the practice too often resorted 
to of storing grain and malt ; for as sure as the soil will produce 
nothing but weeds if crops be not sown, so sure will almost all 
seeds become the prey of insects if they be neglected, and are not 
appropriated in due time either to reproduce their kind or to be 
converted into food. 
A very great evil results from storing foreign corn, for owing 
to the regular and high temperature on the continent of Europe, 
especially in the southern states, insects generate with more cer- 
tainty and in greater multitudes, and there is a larger number of 
species than in northern latitudes. In England there is not half 
the care required to preserve clothes, furs, collections of stuffed 
animals, insects, plants, &c., that there is in the south of France 
G 2 
