ioo Second Report on Economic Zoology. 
infected before they are put into the bottle or afterwards ; (2) what 
is the duration of life of the larva ; (3) whether dipping the cork in 
wax is sufficient to kill the creature, or whether it is essential to 
recork the wine ; (4) whether infection spreads through a cellar by 
the beetle laying eggs in the various corks, and if so, whether it is of 
any use disinfecting the cellar either by means of formalin or burning 
sulphur. I rather gather that the latter is no use, but I cannot find 
that anyone has ever tried the former. 
“ I should be very much obliged if you could inform me what is 
the proper treatment to adopt, as I find wine merchants differ con- 
siderably, and also if you could refer me to auy books where I could 
learn more of what is really known. 
“ Possibly I am quite wrong and the whole process is due to 
development of fungus, because it seems to me that the wine becomes 
musty, and is evidently infested with fungus, and I suppose it is a 
question whether the fungus develops along the track of the insect or 
whether the whole disease is fungous ctb initio .” 
To this the following reply was sent : — 
I regret to say there is but little known concerning cork pests. 
The chief pest is the caterpillar of a small moth, Oinophilct V-fiava , 
one of the Tineid moths. This larva eats into the corks. The only 
records I can find concerning it are in the Transactions of the 
Entomological Soc. Lond., Proceedings, v., p. xxxv., and again, 
p. xli. The one is as follows : “ Mr. Doubleday exhibited some 
larvae of one of the Tineidce which had destroyed the corks of a 
stock of wine so as to render it necessary to recork all the bottles.” 
Again, “ Specimens of Gracilarict V-flavct, bred from the larvae found 
in the wine corks previously exhibited by Mr. E. Doubleday. This 
insect, he remarks, until within a few years was very rare in 
collections, but had lately been found in plenty by Mr. Bedell in 
wine cellars. As it differs considerably from the other species of the 
genus Gracilaria , he proposed to separate it under the name of 
Oinophila” 
Stainton, in his “ Insecta Britannica,” Lepidoptera, Tineina, p. 231, 
says it “ inhabits wine cellars and wine vaults. The larva has been 
reputed to feed on the fungus which grows in wine vaults and also 
on the corks in the bottles, but further investigations are still wanted 
to fully elucidate the natural history of this singular insect.” 
This small moth occurs in cellars, etc., in July and August. It 
is from one-third to five-twelfths of an inch in length. The fore 
wings are fuscous, with an angulated yellow fascia in the middle and 
two yellow marginal spots beyond the middle. 
