THE KANSAS UNIYERSITY 



SCIENCE BULLETIN 



Vol. XIV.] October, 1922. [No. 15. 



A Brief Resume of Investigations Made in 1913 on 

 Trogoderma inclusa Lee. (a Dermestid) . 



By ADOLPH H. BEYER. 



THE work herewith reported was undertaken at the suggestion 

 of Prof. S. J. Hunter, who had received complaints concerning 

 damage to leather horse collars. The damage consisted in more or 

 less numerous perforations of the leather by some insect, which 

 injury interfered seriously with the marketability of the manu- 

 factured goods. It became my task to determine the insect causing 

 the damage, the source of infestation, and the methods of con- 

 trolling the pest. The investigations were made in 1913, but are 

 reported here for the first time. 



NATURE OF THE INJURY TO THE HORSE COLLARS. 



The leather of the infested collars has the appearance of being 

 perforated with numerous little round holes about the size of a pin- 

 head. The insects reared from infested collars proved to be der- 

 mestid beetles belonging to the above-named species. The insects 

 hatch in the rye straw used in filling the collars, and the larvae live 

 upon the grain left in the straw. As the larvse develop to within a 

 month of the adult stage, they approach the outside of the collar 

 and emerge by eating holes through the leather of the collar. 



A number of firms engaged in the manufacture of collars have 

 reported damage of this character. One firm in Texas writes: 

 "We wish to state that five or six years ago we had trouble of this 

 kind owing to the fact that we were using rye straw with lots of 

 grain still in the straw, and small worms or insects would bore 

 through the leather into the collar to get at the grain. We had very 

 little loss, as we soon found out the trouble, and therefore quit 

 using straw that had any grain in it at all." 



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