AN OMNIVOROUS BEETLE. 



a hood, the head being bent under and rarely visible from 

 above; the front and middle coxse are cylindrical or nearly 

 globular; the first of the tarsal joints is often longer than 

 the second. They live on dry animal and vegetable 

 products and in dead wood. The following are rather 

 frequently noticed. 



I had not been at the American Museum 

 Sitodrepa of Natural History very long before a 



panicea u* ' 1 



mystified lady brought in some red pepper 



which had been kept in a tight tin box and which, never- 

 theless, had in it reddish-brown beetles about .1 in. long. 

 A lens showed the characteristic form (Plate LXXIX) 

 and bristling yellow pubescence of this Drug-store Beetle. 

 I assured her that even red pepper is net too strong for it. 

 At least forty-five different drugs, including aconite, 

 belladonna, squill, orris root, and ergot, are in its menu. 

 It has been known to bore through tin-foil and sheet- 

 lead. Printed books are not too dry for it; and it eats all 

 sorts of seeds and dry groceries. There still remained, 

 in the visitor's mind, curiosity concerning the sufficiency 

 of air and water in the "tight tin box." I took her pepper 

 and beetles, put them in a glass vial, corked it, sealed it 

 with paraffin, and put it in an exhibition case, suggesting 

 that she come back occasionally to see how her captives 

 were getting along. At the end of two years and a half 

 there had been numerous generations of offspring which, 

 by that time, had reduced the pepper and part of the cork 

 to such an unnutritious powder that even Sitodrepa had 

 to give up. Under favorable conditions there is a genera- 

 tion every two months. 



This is a good place to say that there is no such thing 

 as the Book Worm among insects. This insect is one. 

 Another of the same family has a record of having "pene- 

 trated directly through twenty-seven large quarto volumes 

 in so straight a line that a string could be passed through 

 the opening and the whole series of volumes suspended." 

 This was Ptinus fur (Plate LXXIX) the small reddish- 

 brown Spider Beetle whose female has two white patches 

 on each elytron. In fact, almost any insect which feeds 

 on dry, starchy material may eat books. 

 21 32I 



