22 
The motli seems to have appeared in great numbers in certain 
localities for a time, and then disappeared. Prof. Zeller wrote 
Dr. Riley in 1883 that the insect had apparently died out at 
Gitinhof; and, as stated above, Mr. Danysz was informed by a practical 
miJler that it appeared in destructive numbers in a flouring-mill 
in Constantinople in 1872, and disappeared after two years. This 
mi^ht seem to indicate that the insect is a passive creature, and 
if not disturbed, and allowed to multiply for~a time, would finally 
disappear altogether; but so far as I can learn, it has never disap¬ 
peared from a given locality or mill only after the most energetic 
fighting. 
There is not much doubt but that the moth existed in widely 
separated places a long time before 1877. As stated above, Mr. 
Danysz has collected some important information on this point 
from practical millers in France. I have been informed by a 
thoroughly reliable miller in San Francisco, whose name I with¬ 
hold by request, that he came in contact with this pest in 1858. 
At that time he was employed in a large flouring-mill at Rast- 
dorf, near Kiel, Schleswig Holstein, Germany, where the moth 
was very abundant during the month of June. He is positive 
about his identification of the insect, having had much experience 
fighting it in his California mills since 1889. 
t The foregoing facts indicate that Epliestia kuehniella was 
c boroughly established in Germany twenty years or more before it 
fame into Prof. Zeller’s hands for description, and it is there- 
ore unlikely that the pest was introduced into that country from 
North America. From all I have been able to gather on this 
point I am of the opinion that its original home, if ever ascertained, 
will not be North America. 
It has been recently discovered that this moth lives in the nests 
of a wild bumblebee in California, and Mr. D. W. Coquillett, of 
the U. S. Department of Agriculture, is reported by Mr. F. H. 
Chittenden as having stated that it also occurs in the hives of 
the homy-bee. The question naturally presents itself, has the 
moth found that it can perpetuate its species in a bumblebee’s 
nest or a beehive, and transferred its attack from the mill to 
these more natural and primitive food houses, or vice versa? The 
theory that the transfer has been from the bumblebee’s nest and 
the beehive to the mill would afford a plausible explanation of 
the appearance of the moth in mills in isolated places, and at 
times when it was least expected. The origin of the California 
outbreak might be thus explained; but I have myself no faith in 
this theory concerning the present infestation, and will not discuss 
the matter further from this standpoint. 
I will now state as briefly as possible the facts I have gathered 
regarding its occurrence on the Pacific coast. I have been told by 
prominent millers in California, that it has been less than fifteen 
years since oatmeal was bought in the Eastern States, shipped to 
California, aud sold cheaper than it could be manufactured there. 
I do not infer from this that the moth came through this chan_ 
nel, but simply introduce the statement to indicate the commercial 
