816 
ANNUAL REPOET OF NEW YORK 
ANGOUMOIS MOTH. HOW IT EXTRACTS ITSELF FROM THE GRAIN. 
ing the head. They are minute projecting processes, shaped like 
the point of a pin. When highly magnified, they are found to 
be smooth, pellucid, composed of three joints, and terminated 
by a pair of exceedingly minute hooks. Following these are 
four pairs of prolegs, placed on the seventh and the three suc¬ 
ceeding segments, and a fifth pair on the apical segment. Ihese 
prolegs are so little developed that they can scarcely be detected. 
When viewed laterally, the segments bearing them are seen to 
be more gibbous, or swelled out, where these legs are situated, 
than are the other segments. Upon the back there is a more or 
less obvious darker colored line along the middle, at least on the 
posterior segments, caused by the dorsal vessel showing itself 
through the semitransparent skin. On each side of the second 
segment is a round impressed point. It is thrice as long as 
broad, and measures 0.15 in length. 
The following observations on the manner in which the moth 
extricates itself from the grain, (see plate 1, fig. 3,) and its ap¬ 
pearance and motions when it is abroad in its perfect state, are 
of sufficient interest to be here inserted. 
Two bottles containing infested wheat gave out a number of 
the moths, the one on the 5th of March, the other a month later. 
In both instances it was observed that the hatching occurred 
the day before the access of stormy weather, indicating that, 
though inclosed in bottles in a stove-warmed room, these insects 
felt the change that was taking place in the atmosphere out 
doors. 
The smoot h round hole which the larva cuts through the shell 
of the grain, is barely of sufficient size to enable the moth to 
crowd itself out of it with much labor. The head and fore body 
is first protruded, followed by the fore legs. Then the hind body, 
being soft and flexible, is extricated by a series of writhing mo¬ 
tions, the fore legs serving to assist very much in this part of 
the operation, by bracing and crowding the body over, first to 
one side and then to the other, and finally drawing it forward 
sufficiently to enable the tip to become extricated. The antennae 
are next withdrawn, and the insect now remains attached by its 
wings and hind legs, which are still inclosed within the orifice. 
It is only after a protracted and laborious series of efforts and 
writhings that these members are extracted, little by little, the 
fore logs and the hind body serving as props by which to elevate , 
