20 
Prof. William Trelease, of the Shaw School of Botany, St. Louis, 
exhibited at the February (1896) meeting of the Academy of Sci¬ 
ence of St. Louis (79) specimens of a curious silk fabric taken 
from the ceiling of a corn-storiDg loft in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 
by Dr. Francis Eschauzier. Although specimens of the insect re- 
spousible for the silk were not secured, it was presumed that it 
whs made by larvae of the Mediterranean flour moth. 
Besides the articles already mentioned, several reviews and 
notices have appeared in other publications, principally in “Insect 
Life,” all of which are mentioned in the list at the end of this 
paper. 
DISTRIBUTION AND DISSEMINATION. 
As lias been already stated, Ephestia kuehniella was first 
brought to the attention of scientists in 1877. Prof. Zeller, two 
years later, when he described it, stated on insufficient grounds 
that in all probability the insect came from North America. It was 
supposed to have been introduced in Belgium, in 1884, on American 
cereals. Regarding its appearance in mills near Bremworde in 
1885, it is stated positively that the insect was introduced in 
that locality on American wheat. This being in the Belgium and 
Bremworde mills at the time of the outbreak, seemed to suggest 
to those concerned that the pest must be of American origin. 
The fact of the case is, that the pest was not known in North 
America in destructive numbers prior to 1889, at which time it 
appeared in Canada. The moth has been known much longer in 
Europe than in America, but the extreme readiness with which 
Europeans attribute new pests to this country, has been exhibited 
more than once. 
Miss Ormerod did not find Ephestia kuehniella listed in Grote’s 
check list of the moths of North America for 1882, and was there¬ 
fore of the opinion that the pest came to England from Europe 
or the East, rather than from America. Mr. Sydney Klein, in 
the “Mark Lane Express,” 14th November, 1887, in speaking of 
the English outbreak, says the pest was introduced into the Lon¬ 
don warehouse where he carried on his observations, in some 
meal shipped from Fiume, on the Adriatic, in 1885. I might 
state here, that Mr. Klein mentions this pest as the scourge of 
the Mediterranean ports, but does not give any date as to its first 
appearance there. 
In 1890 Miss Ormerod made inquiries regarding the distribu¬ 
tion of the moth, and received a letter from Dr. Lindeman, of 
Moscow, stating that he was not aware of its being present 
in Southern Russia, and that it had not been observed in Central 
Russia up to that time. 
Mr. J. Danysz, of Paris, has made a careful study of the out¬ 
break in France, and states that its first occurrence there is re¬ 
corded prior to its first appearance in England. He does not 
think it safe to point to any one country as the original home of 
the pest, and places no reliance upon the idea that the insect was 
