THE ANGOUMOIS QRAIN-MOTH. 
505 
the wing, in the room where the corn was kept. He also 
brought to me two large ears of corn from the infected heap. 
At that time, I was not aware that the fly-weevil attacked 
Indian corn, at least in New England; and these ears, 
appearing sound externally, were rolled up in several sheets 
of strong brown paper, securely tied, and laid away for 
future examination. They were forgotten, however, till De¬ 
cember, 1845, when, upon opening the parcel, I found a 
great quantity of dead moths, and several living ones, in the 
paper. Every kernel a])peared to have been perforated, and 
many of the kernels had three or four holes in each of them. 
Some contained the insect in the worm state, and some the 
fully formed chrysalis. The moths differed from the Vir¬ 
ginia fly-weevil only in being rather larger, with blackish 
fore legs, and in having a more conspicuous blackish spot 
near the tips of the feelers, showing them to be merely 
varieties of the same species. This remark seems to be 
confirmed by the now well-known fact, that the fly-weevil, 
at the South and West, attacks corn as well as wheat, and 
by the statement of Mr. Owen, that “ the insect found in 
com does not differ from that found in wheat; it is usually,” 
says he, “ somewhat larger than the specimens from wheat, 
but this may be owing to the greater amount of nourishment 
which the corn has afforded.” Moreover, we learn from 
the works of Olivier and of Bonafous,^ that maize also 
suffers from the Angoumois moth in France. It is related 
that Kalm, the Swedish traveller, on findinoj some buofs in 
pease that he had carried home from this country, was 
filled with alarm, “ fearing lest he might thereby introduce 
so great an evil into liis beloved Sweden.” With some¬ 
thing of the same feeling, on finding what the insects were 
that had been depredating in my friend’s corn-bin, I put 
the two ears of corn into a large glass jar, and corked it 
tight, to prevent the escape of any moths that might be 
* Encyclopedie M^thodique, Insectes, Tom. IV. p. 121. Histoire du Mais, pai 
M. Bonafous, p. 111. 
64 
