INSECTS INJURIOUS TO MEATS 



297 



in its drug menu, are such bitter and poisonous substances 

 as aconite and belladonna. It also shows its liking for 

 boneset, rhubarb, squill, orris root, dandelion, and ergot. 

 In fact, Kellogg found this insect feeding on forty-five 

 different drugs. 



In addition to its depredations in drug stores it has 

 occasionally caused serious injuries in wholesale boot and 

 shoe houses by burrowing through the leather in all direc- 



Fig. 102. — Larva of drug-store beetle. (X 20.) 



tions, especially through the soles. The shoes attacked 

 are left full of small round holes through which the adult 

 beetles have emerged. 



The beetles have occasionally shown their liking for 

 books and the larvae have, in some instances, caused con- 

 siderable injury to books by boring through them. Corn- 

 stock bred it in large numbers from the covers of an old 

 copy of Dante's "Divine Comedy." They sometimes attack 

 cork, especially sheet cork. As this kind of cork is often 

 used to line insect boxes, the beetles are sometimes found 

 among insect collections, and when the larvse tire of the 



