GRAIN INSECTS. Stored grain, corn, nuts, and the like, are frequently infested and injured by various insects. About 40 kinds of weevils (q.v.) lay their eggs upon dry grain, and their grubs bore into and devour the ker nel, so that when they are numerous great damage may ensue. It has been estimated that the annual loss in the United States from this cause alone is about $40,000,000. The most important of these pests are the granary-weevil (Calandra granaria) and the rice-weevil (C. oryza). The former is wingless, evidence that it was domesticated ages ago. It multiplies so rapidly, developing from egg to adult in about six weeks, that five or six generations might be produced annually in a warm temperature. The rice-weevil has well-developed wings, which it seldom uses, showing a strong tend ency to become wingless in time. Much in jury to stored grain is also caused by other beetles, particularly by three species (SiIvanus surinamensis, Cathartics gemellatus and C. ad vena), but they usually follow the attacks of other insects. The cadelle (Tenebroides mouri tanicus) is to be included in this category, as it has a pernicious habit of gnawing into kernels of grain and destroying the embryo or germ. Great harm in granaries is done also by small moths related to the clothes-moth, whose cater pillars bind the grains together, forming clots, which both spoil the edible quality of the cereal and clog mill machinery. The most familiar of these is the European Gelechia cerealella, often called Angoumois grain-moth, but known as afly-weevil" in the Southern States, where it is so prevalent that grain can nowhere be stored for a long time. Another imported grain-moth,
troublesome in the United States since about 1890, is Ephestia kiihniella; and a third (Tinea granella), is especially harmful to wheat in Eu rope, but not prevalent in America. Injury by the Angoumois grain-moth and the rice-weevil, which obtain entrance to the grain in the fields, can be largely prevented by early harvesting and by threshing as soon as possible. The standard remedy for all grain insects, however, is bisulphide of carbon, applied at the rate of one or two ounces to every 100 pounds of infested grain, which is effective in proportion to the tight closing of the bins. Exposure should last as long as possible, unless the seed is desired for planting, when an exposure of 24 hours is sufficient and will not detract from the germinating power. In that can not be tightly closed a larger quantity of the insecticide must be used, and repetition of treatment is necessary in warm weather at tervals of six weeks or more. Frequent stirring about of the grain is helpful against these in sects; and granaries whenever emptied should be thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed. See FLOUR AND MEAL INSECTS. GRAIN-POISONING. See ERGOTISM.