394 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



an inch. Her body is stouter and rounder than that of 

 the male. The body of the male is nearly cylindrical. 



The materials infested by this insect are numerous. It 

 has been known for years as a pest to books. Linnaeus 

 mentioned it as a pest in libraries as long ago as 1766. 

 A French observer reports that the larva of this beetle, or 

 of the drug-store beetle, penetrated directly through 

 twenty-seven large quarto volumes in so straight a line 

 that a string could be passed through the opening and the 

 whole series of volumes suspended. In 1836 Audouin 

 found great numbers of the larvae of this beetle in flour in the 

 village of Versailles, France. They had evidently com- 

 mitted serious damage to this stored product. Fletcher 

 has also recorded its injuries to flour in Orillia and 

 Toronto, Canada. 



Chittenden relates an interesting and important out- 

 break of this insect in cotton seed stored in bags in a 

 barn near Concord, New Hamphire. The insects "had 

 devoured the bags and increased so enormously as to cover 

 the buildings ; had invaded neighboring houses, and were 

 attacking clothing of all kinds." The owner was greatly 

 worried lest the insect should prove a much more serious 

 pest and spread through the town. 



In addition to these notices, it has been found attacking 

 wool, furs, clothing, roots, stuffed animals, dried plants 

 in herbariums, insect specimens in collections, and various 

 other animal and vegetable substances. 



The larvae of Ptinus fur are small and whitish in color, 

 resembling closely those of the drug-store beetle. They 

 cement the material together in which they are working, 

 forming a delicate case in which they live. European observ- 

 ers generally credit the insect with one annual generation 



