167 



LETTER VIII. 



INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



INDIRECT INJURIES — Concluded. 



I HAVE not yet arrived at the end of my catalogue of noxions insects. 

 I have introduced you, indeed, to those that annoy man in his own person, 

 in his domestic animals, in the produce of his fields, gardens, orchards, 

 and forests ; in a word, every thing that is endued with the vital principle : 

 but I have as yet said nothing of the injuries which he receives from them 

 in that part of his property, consisting either of animal or vegetable mat- 

 ter, yrom which that principle is departed. And with these I shall con- 

 clude this melancholy detail of evils inflicted upon us by the very animals 

 I am enticing you to study. The rest of my correspondence, I flatter 

 myself, will paint them in more inviting colors. 



The insects to which I now allude may be divided into those that attack 

 and injure our food, our drugs and medicines, our clothes, our houses and 

 furniture, our timber, and even the objects of our studies and amusements. 



Various are those that attempt to share ouv food with us. Flour and 

 meal are eaten by the grub of Tenebrio molitor, best known by the name 

 of the meal-worm, which will remain in it two years before it goes into its 

 state of inactivity : — its ravages, however, are not confined to flour alone, 

 for it will eat any thing made of that article, such as bread, cakes, and 

 the like. Old flour is also very apt to be infested by a mite (^Acarus 

 farina).^ In long voyages the biscuit sometimes so swarms with the 

 weevil and another beetle (^Dermestes paniceus L.), that they are swallow- 

 ed with every mouthful ; and even the ground peas so abound with these 

 little vermin that a spoonful of soup cannot be taken free from them.^ 

 Bread is also devoured by Trogosita caraboides, a larger beetle before 

 alluded to. 



Every one is aware that our animal food suffers still more than our fari- 

 naceous from insects ; but perhaps you would not expect that our hams, 

 bacon, and dried meats should have their peculiar beetle. Yet so it is ; 

 and this beetle (Dermestes lardarius), when a grub, sometimes commits 



' Ammn. Acad. iii. 345, 



* Sparrman, i. 103. This insect, by Swedish entomologists, is supposed to be a species 

 of Anobium F. (Ptinus L.) ; but the specimen preserved in the Linnean cabinet is Sylpha 

 rosea oi Mr. Marshara (Cacidula pectoralis Meg.). A small beetle of the first family of 

 Cryptophagus Gyllenhal swarms often in the ship biscuit, and may probably be the insect 

 Sparrman here complains of under the name of Dermestes paniceus. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that there is a mistake as to the specimen in the Linnean cabinet, as there is no doubt 

 that Anobium paniceum Stephens is very injurious to biscuit, of which Mr. Raddon exhibited 

 to the Entomological Society several perforated, in all directions by the larvae of this 

 insect, which, strange to say, he found to feed also on Cayenne pepper. {Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 Lond. i. proc. Ixxxv. ii. proc. Ixxi.) 



