96 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



FIG. 3. 



TWO TOBACCO BEETLES AND ONE 



DRUG-STORE BEETLE (LOWER) 



AND LARVAE 



capsule showed a small live and curved 

 larva. In others the maturing larval 

 beetles could be seen, the larval state 

 being in appearance identically the 

 same as photographed in Figs. 2 and 3. 

 On closer inspection of Fig. 4 several 

 of the whitish larvae of this beetle 

 are seen, for instance at the places 

 marked 1. Some of these larvae were 

 quite disfigured in general appearance 

 from the fine orris root powder ad- 

 hering to their hairy filaments. In 

 a few artificially opened cocoons the 

 larva is seen quite plainly in the il- 

 lustration. 



ft is an interesting fact, also stated 

 by Mr. Lucas, that these tobacco 

 beetles prefer the best brand of to- 

 bacco and the more so as they are 

 occasionally found in tobacco which 

 had been sealed air-tight in tin or 

 wooden boxes and therefore the proba- 

 bility presents itself that these pests 

 had been conveyed through tobacco 

 goods in the tobacco factories be- 

 fore being put on the market, it 

 being very difficult to detect the min- 

 ute ova. How these beetles develop 

 in all sorts of tobacco is seen, as a 

 second example, in the so-called plug 



tobacco, Fig. 2 (1), which I also pro- 

 cured from the druggist. I prepared 

 the view with an objective lens applied 

 to the camera, showing the tobacco 

 larvae about one half times magnified ; 

 also the second figure of the same 

 photograph, showing some of the lar- 

 vae of the drug store beetle and the 

 tobacco insect and also the appear- 

 ance and size (about one half larger) 

 of the tobacco and the drug beetle 

 (the latter being more slender). 



In further experimenting with this 

 matter, I succeeded in preparing the 

 view Fig. 3 using an extra strong lens 

 to the camera at quite near focus, show- 

 ing six of the tobacco larvae, two full 

 grown tobacco beetles and one drug- 

 store beetle (the lowest one in the 

 photograph) magnified considerably. 



The third illustration in Fig. 2 shows 

 the closely allied drug-store beetle, 

 named because of its preference of in- 

 vading drug-store goods and infesting 

 precisely in the same manner as the to- 

 bacco beetle. This view shows the 

 beetles in very slightlv less than nor- 

 mal size. This drug-store beetle is 

 more slenderly built than the tobacco 



FIG. 4. 



COCOONS OF THE TOBACCO BEETLE 



WITH LARVAE 



Magnified three times. 



