FLOUR MOTH. 
71 
In my own experiments I noticed the caterpillar could on dry 
annoyance let itself down by a thread, but on moist application I did 
not see that it attempted it, and this might possibly point to syringing 
down being serviceable (as noticed in foregoing observations). 
At present one most important point on which we need information 
is—where from, and in what manner, do these pests travel to us ; and 
next, how are they transmitted now that they are with us ? 
In the very first record of their appearance they were found in 
grinding American Wheat; this was in 1877, and Mr. Klein (see 
paper referred to in 1887) mentions them as “ a scourge of the 
Mediterranean ports.” On enquiry I find the Ephestia •Kuliniella not 
included in Grrote’s list of N. American Lepidoptera for 1882, so that 
investigations point rather to Europe or the East as the exporting 
centres. 
Regarding this, I enquired of my correspondent whether there was 
reason to suppose they had come in Russian Wheat. He replied:— 
“ Though I had been a large user of that for the last twelve months, 
I scarcely think they have come in it, or other millers would have found 
them in their mills. Moreover, they do not seem to trouble us at all 
in the warehouse where all the grain is stored, but only in the flour, 
and especially in any light fluffy or branny stuff. My impression is 
that they have come to me from some baker in returned empty sacks. 
Is it possible that they could have spread in this way from the flour in 
London, as recorded in the pamphlet you sent me?” 
Nothing is more likely than that such should be the case. Mr. 
Sidney Klein, in his paper read before the Entomological Society 
(referred to at p. 67), mentioned that the eggs which seemed to be laid 
by the moths “generally upon the top of the sack hatched within a few 
days of being laid, and the larvae (caterpillars) at once burrowing 
through the sacking, commenced spinning long galleries in the flour, 
seldom, however, going more than three inches from the exterior.”— 
S. T. K. 
Relatively to this matter, perhaps safety could be secured as 
to sending on the pest from infested centres by baking the sacks; 
a warmth far below what would do any harm to the sacking would 
probably destroy all vitality of the pest from egg up to moth state, 
and it would be very useful to know whether, excepting the single 
observation of the infestation being found in “ Rice-cones,” the 
caterpillars affected other flour than that of wheat. Prof. Zeller 
mentions they are considered by millers to reject Rye-meal; and at 
a glance this suggests that if Oat or Barley-meal were similarly 
obnoxious to caterpillars, something might be done by temporary 
change of corn ground to clear out the pest. But on inquiry the 
different nature of machinery introduced largely for flour-milling in 
