105 



SEEDS, STORES, AND WOOD. 



Bread or Paste Beetle; Drug Store Beetle (U.S.A.). Anobium 

 paviceum { = Sitodrepa panicea), Linn. Striped Death-watch 

 Beetle. Anobium striatum, Oliv. Checkered Death-watch 

 Beetle. Anobiiim tcssellatum = Xestobium tessellatum, Fab. ( = A\ 

 rufovillosum , De G.*). 



0m 



Anobium paniceum. — 1, beetle; 2, larva; 3, pupa, magnified. (From Bulletin 

 No. 4, New Series, U.S.A. Dei3artment of Agriculture, p. 124.) 



During the past season I received inquiry from one of our chief 

 seed and importing firms regarding some insect infestation in Onion 

 seed, noticed in South Africa in seed that had been imported from 

 England. Specimens were placed in my hands for examination which 

 showed the damage to be caused by the maggots of a small beetle, 

 apparently some kind oi Anobium ; but (necessarily) what the species 

 might be could not be told from merely larval specimens. On deve- 

 lopment, however, to beetle condition, the species was found by the 

 Assistant Government Entomologist, Cape Colony, to be Anobium 

 paniceian (now known as Sitodrepa panicea), a kind with which I had 

 made acquaintance some years ago, as seriously injurious to leather of 

 boots exported from England to Cape Town, and to Port Ehzabeth, 

 South Africa. 



From the extraordinary variety of kinds of substances on which 

 this widely distributed pest preys, it appears almost impossible to 

 name it usefully under the name of any one of these ; but as (amongst 

 these) granary and mill stores, likewise dried Peas and Beans, are 

 subject to its ravages, and we have now an instance of its power of 

 injuring Onion seed, the infestation may fairly be classed amongst 

 agricultural pests under the above heading of " Seeds and Stores," 

 joined to that of " Wood," to which the other two species of Anobium 

 named cause inconvenient or sometimes almost ruinous damage by 

 their perforations in furniture and beams and other solid woodwork. 



* Third Supplement of Henshaw List. 



