72 
during the winter season, and pupate in early spring, to emerge 
several weeks later in the beetle stage. The meal-worm feeds on 
Fig. 12. Yellow Meal-worm, Tenebrio molitor , adult. 
flour, meal, and even the dust and refuse of mills and granaries. 
It has sometimes been found in ship’s biscuit, and will doubtless 
infest similar cooked foods exposed to its invasion. 
A closely related species known as the dark meal-worm (Tene¬ 
brio obscurus LinnJ is extremely similar to the foregoing, but dull 
pitchy black. In habits and economic relations this is a close parallel 
to the preceding, altho the larva has been taken in more unusual 
substances, such as cotton-seed, commercial soda, cotton-seed meal, 
black pepper, and commercial fertilizer. Both these species avoid 
the light, and are most likely to breed in dark unclean corners of 
mills and elevators. Thoro cleanliness is, consequently, an im¬ 
portant preventive. 
Measures of Prevention and Remedy 
Insects of the granary are much more easily kept out than put 
out. All places where grain or any of its products are stored 
should above all things be kept clean—not merely apparently clean, 
but actually so. Cracks in the walls and floor, for example, may 
seem to be clean when swept over, but may really be filled with the 
dust of grain and similar debris and thus become a breeding place 
for a number of granary insects. Storage rooms and bins should, 
in fact, be so constructed as to be free from cracks, the walls, floor, 
and ceiling smooth, and everything solid and snug. No rubbish 
of any kind should be allowed to accumulate, either in the building 
or on adjacent premises. Everything should also be done to keep 
insects out of the storehouse. Grain should be brought in from 
the field as soon as possible, since the longer it is exposed after 
ripening the more likely is to become infested by the Angoumois 
grain moth, the rice-weevil, and some other species. If found in- 
