94 
Observations on the various Insects 
nevertheless, my advice to those who are sufferers is, to persevere 
It appears that in October, 1837, the extensive granaries of Messrs. 
Hellicar, in Bristol, the greater part of which had been built 
within the two previous years, were infested bv these insects. Mr. 
Spence, who visited the premises with Mr. Raddon, says, " We 
found the barley lying on the floors covered with a gauze-like 
tissue, formed of the fine silken threads spun by the larvae in tra- 
versing its surface, on recently quitting it for the purpose of under- 
going their metamorphosis in the ceiling of the granary, formed of 
the joists and wooden floor of the story above. What was remark- 
able, as Mr. Raddon communicated to the Entomological Society,* 
was the great depth to which the larvae had bored in the wood — 
even through knots filled with turpentine, so as to convert portions 
of the wood-work in places quite into a honeycomb, and thus to be 
almost as injurious to the building as to the corn stored in it." 
It is certainly very strange that these larvae, after being glutted 
with the farina of the corn, should wander from the heaps to feed 
upon timber, even saturated with turpentine. Such, however, is 
the fact ; and Mr. Spence adds, " that their main purpose (whe- 
ther we suppose the excavated wood to be eaten and digested, or 
not)+ is to provide a retreat for the larvae, which remain in this 
state the whole winter, and do not become pupae till spring, is 
proved by the fact that it is from the mouths of these holes (after 
every portion of the excrement hanging from them has been swept 
away, and the whole ceiling thickly lime-washed, as it is every au- 
tumn) that the moths emerge by thousands in the month of June, 
as yearly takes place in Messrs. Hellicar's granaries." Some of 
these caterpillars ate through paper into the cork where they were 
placed. 
If diseased corn be used for seed, it is important to sowitdeep, 
for the caterpillars will become pupae in the earth ; and it has 
been observed that when that practice has been adopted, few of the 
moths were able to struggle through the soil, and those were in a 
weak and languid state ; whilst the corn which was buried about 
an inch only, with the larvae in it, produced the moths, which 
readily made their escape from the chrysalides. It is also desirable 
to cut the corn in good season, and not suffer it to stand too long 
in the sheaf, as the moths will be enabled to lay their eggs in the 
ears in the field, and are thus introduced into the barn. 
The natural enemies of the grain-moths are — bats, which feed 
upon these and other moths, especially those that surround and 
inhabit the same localities. Spiders also occupy the angles of the 
windows and doorways, spreading their nets to catch such prey. 
* Vide the Transactions, vol. ii. p. Ixviii. 
t Vide Leuwenhoek's statement in a preceding page. 
