472 Short Comnmnications : -^ 



The ticking in my chimney-board is still continued in the 

 old place.— /r/. Feb. 20. 1834. 



These mentions of Anobium striatum have led me to re- 

 member the fact of the insect's prevailing in the woodwork 

 of my father's cottage, and to request from him specimens 

 of the insect, and a description of any facts on its habits 

 with which he might be acquainted. He has replied as 

 follows: — " iVbtJ. 9. 1832. Notwithstanding the terrible 

 havoc made in the deal boards of the chamber floor and 

 partitioning of my back room by the insect, I have had to 

 search a long time to find for you, at this season, a single 

 specimen in the winged state. I have found one, dead, and 

 send it to you, along with many live larvae, packed in the dust 

 from the old wood, which I have sawed and broken up to 

 procure them. They are destructive vermin ; and, although 

 small, will, by their aggregate exertion, shortly destroy the 

 timber of any building, when the wood has become in a 

 proper state for them to prey upon. Frequent washing and 

 scouring of the floors, particularly at the time the insects are 

 about to deposit their eggs; and painting or limewashing the 

 partitions, doors, beams, and other objects of their attack, not 

 readily scourable, appear to me to be the best preventives. 

 Besides deal, they attack the wood of ash or elm ; and my 

 neighbour, Mr. Cooper, the wheelwright, says no kind of 

 wood comes amiss to them. 



" I have visited Mr. Cooper's timber yard, to endeavour to 

 obtain you specimens thence also ; and he has gouged out of 

 a piece of wood of white deal one specimen, which you will 

 find sticking dead, with its head outwards, though not pro- 

 jecting, in the mouth of the hole it had drilled." 



I have submitted the two specimens mentioned to Mr. 

 Westwood, who has confirmed my application of the name 

 Anobium striatum to that from my father's cottage, and de- 

 termined that taken from the wood of white deal, in Mr. 

 Cooper's timber yard, to be the Ptilinus pectinicornis of Fa- 

 bricius. The circumstance of this insect not being distinguished 

 from the Anobium striatum, by my father or Mr. Cooper, 

 gives ground for this question : may not the imputation above, 

 on Anobium striatum, that, " besides deal, it attacks the wood 

 of ash, elm, and no kind of wood comes amiss to it," belong in 

 part to other insects of the Ptinidae family ? It is probable that 

 to some one species of this same family the following allega- 

 tion, by the poet Cowper, is referable. In the first book of The 

 Task, in the historical deduction of seats, it is said : — 

 " And such [a stool] in ancient halls and mansions drear 

 May still be seen, but perforated sore, 

 And drilled in holes, the solid oak is found. 

 By worms voracious eating through and through." 



