110 



SEEDS, STORES, AND WOOD. 



aware, without injury to seed, I do not feel right in not inserting 

 mention of it. Nevertheless, I should say care was needed not only 

 for personal safety, but also possibility of vitiating insurances. 



During the years 1885 and 1886 I had a good deal of communi- 

 cation from manufacturers and exporters at home and recipients of 

 goods at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, regarding injury caused to 

 exported boots by insect-workings, which, on investigation, proved to 

 be those of the above-mentioned beetle, Anobiion paniceum, which was 

 present in all its stages, larval, pupal, and as perfect insect, in the 

 injured manufactures. 





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Piece of a boot injured by maggot of Anobium paniceum. 



The above figure (taken from a portion of one of a pair of child's 

 boots sent me as a sample of the nature of the damage) shows the 

 appearance of the maggot-galleries, which were for the most part where 

 paste had been used between the linen and leather, but in some places 

 had run considerably further on. The great injury and consequent 

 losses made the matter the subject of much consultation at the time, 

 in the course of which I was greatly obliged to Dr. Bernard Dyer, of 

 Great Tower Street, London, for favouring me with analyses of the 

 ingredients used for forming paste that would be m-nutritious to the 

 infestation, and therefore (it might be hoped) would be preventive of 

 the attack. 



But from the consultations of the firms being in business con- 

 fidence, and involving important trade interests, I did not feel free to 

 enter on the matter for publication at the time, and now only allude 

 to it as another instance in which this " Paste Beetle," "Drug Beetle," 

 "Boot Beetle" (or whatever other name it may be noted under, 

 according to special method of attack), has a power of carrying absolute 

 devastation before it, besides losses, and also unpleasantnesses arising 



