FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



A spider-like creature, .1 in. long, with 

 globose, mahogany back and pale brown, 



psylloidcs 



velvety head and thorax, infests old, not 



over clean dwellings. It occasionally is found in New York 

 restaurants in the sugar bowl. 



The small burrows in cigars and cigarettes 

 Lasio erma are usua jiy ^ e wor k o f this species (Plate 

 serricorne 



LXXIX), the Cigar and Cigarette Beetle. 



Although very fond of tobacco, its dietary is much the 

 same as that of Sitodrepa. It averages less than .2 in. 

 long, and the last three joints of the antennae are not 

 enlarged like those of Sitodrepa; the front angles of the 

 pronotum are more acute. The white larvae resemble 

 those of the Drug-store Beetle but are hairier. 



This and several related species bore in 

 Anpbmm ^ Q wooc j o f nouses an d furniture. In the 



stnatum 



role of Death-watch they sometimes play a 



grim joke on superstitious humans who believe that the 

 ticking sound which the beetle makes portends the death 

 of some one in the house. Swift had the right idea: 



"A kettle of scalding hot water ejected 

 Infallibly cures the timber affected; 

 The omen is broken, the danger is over, 

 The maggot will die, and the sick will recover." 



They make the noise by bobbing their heads up and 

 down, tapping the wood. Instead of foretelling death, 

 it is doubtless a call for a mate and new lives. 



BOSTRYCHID^E 



These are distinguished from the Ptinidae by, among other 

 characters, their more cylindrical form and by having 

 the first joint of the tarsi very short and imperfectly sepa- 

 rated from the second. The eyes are small, rounded, and 

 somewhat prominent (See Scolytidae). From Scolytidae 

 they may be differentiated also by the loose-jointed club 

 of the antennae. In Scolytidae this club is a compact knob. 



Sinoxylon basilare (length about .25 in.; black, with basal 

 third of elytra dull reddish-yellow; apical fourth of elytra 



322 



