Abstract
FEW lines of biological research at the present time are of greater moment than those which are likely to contribute towards the maintenance of our food supply. Information comes from trustworthy sources that there is a considerable reduction in the available wheat of the world, and it is therefore more than ever incumbent upon us to reduce any preventable losses to a minimum. The damage sustained by stored grain through the inroads of insect pests is heavy, and we welcome a further series of the Royal Society reports l which are directly concerned with problems connected therewith. Prof. Dendy and his colleague, Mr. Elkington, have carried out much-needed observations of a more exact nature than has hitherto been attempted. Embodied in their reports is a good deal of both biologically and economically valuable information relating to some of our most destructive grain pests. In dealing with the phenomenon known to the trade as “webbing,” they point out that it is due to the wandering of great numbers of larvae of the moth Ephestia elutella over the surface of heaped grain in warehouses. Each larva trails behind itself a silken thread and, when very abundant, the whole surface of the grain may become infested with a reticulum of these threads. The superficial 12 in. of the grain are affected, and become fouled by faecal and other larval debris. Actual injury to the grain itself does not appear to be serious, and it is probable that much of the contamination would be effectually removed during the cleaning processes to which the grain is subjected. It is, however, scarcely likely that any advantage can be derived from allowing these webs to remain, on the strength of a suggestion that weevils are destroyed through getting entangled therein. The safest and surest method is to eliminate the pest as the authors advocate, and it is noteworthy that a wide range of other food products is susceptible to the attacks of this species.
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IMMS, A. The Investigation of Grain Pests. Nature 105, 236–237 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105236a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105236a0