122 FortT-third Report on tee State Museum. [26] 



Unusual Abundance of the Insect. 

 The following note from a correspondent at Ridgefield, Conn., 

 shows the multiplication of the beetle to such an extent that relief 

 from its annoyance could only be obtained through j^ersistently 

 collecting and destroying every individual that came under obser- 

 vation : 



Will you please tell me what kind of a bug this is that I inclose. 

 I find it wherever I leave any food for a few hours. I also find them 

 in the soiled-clothes basket and in the bureau drawers, where I had 

 put some handkerchiefs partly used. Do they eat clothes, or are they 

 simply scavengers for the clearance up of scraps? What will prevent 

 these bugs from getting into a store basket where groceries for family 

 use are kept? 



The Insect as a Wax-feeder. 



A beetle sent to me for name, by Mr. John Aspinwall, editor of the 

 Bee-Keepers' Magazine, the larvje of which had attacked some empty 

 honey- comb and riddled the wax, proved to be this species. In the 

 reply made by me, published in the Bee-Keepers' Magazine for May, 

 1888, it was stated: "I have no knowledge of this insect ever 

 attacking honey-comb, nor do I find any reference to such a habit in 

 any publication at hand. Professor Cook has not included it in his 

 list of enemies of the bee, given in his excellent Manual of the Apiary. 

 If the suspicions entertained of the larvse feeding on comb shall be 

 verified, it will be an interesting fact, as indicating a strange exten- 

 sion in its food-habits." 



Inquiry was subsequently made of Professor Cook of any knowledge 

 that he might have of the occurrence of D. lardarius in bee-hives, to 

 which he made reply that in the last edition of his Manual [not seen 

 by me when above quoted] he has stated that it often feeds on the 

 dead bees and pollen in comb, and so mutilates the fabric. 



Inquiry was also made of Dr. Hagen, of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, at Cambridge, Mass., if, in the large library of European 

 entomological literature at his command, there was any record of 

 D. lardarius feeding on wax or infesting hives in Europe, or if he had 

 knowledge of such occurrence elsewhere. He returned answer that 

 in an extended search through a large number of works, both in the 

 Museum library and in the public library of Boston, he has met with 

 no record of the kind. Mrs. Hagen had recalled the fact that yellow 

 wax was sometimes injured in Europe by insects. 



Subsequently to the above correspondence, confirmation was found 

 of the wax-eating of this insect as above reported, in a brief article 

 contained in the American Entomologist for June, 1870, vol. ii, p. 246, 



