1899] "cadelle"; bread beetle. 67 



larval and in beetle condition it is to some degree carnivorous ; that 

 is, it feeds on insects, as well as on grain and on some otlier vegetable 

 products. 



The special mischief caused by this infestation with which it is 

 credited from the time of Curtis onwards, is the damage which is 

 caused by the larva feeding on stored grain. It is also stated that the 

 larvae are peculiarly destructive from their habit of eating the outside 

 of the (/rains, and passing from one grain to anotlier, and tlius injuring 

 more than they consume. 



In the Bulletin on ' Insects Injurious to Stored Grain ' (1897), 

 referred to previously, which, so far as I am aware, gives the most 

 recent information on the subject, is (at pp. 18, 19) the following 

 valuable observation, which I quote verbatim, as in it Mr. Chittenden, 

 Assistant Entomologist to the Department of Agriculture of the United 

 States of America, records from his own personal observation the fact 

 of T. mauritanicus being both in larval and pupal state a grain feeder ; 

 and afterwards also mentions definitely that in both conditions they 

 are likewise insectivorous. Mr. Chittenden remarks as follows: — 



" The statements of some of the earlier writers that this species is 

 granivorous have been discredited by later authors. It has been 

 experimentally proven by the writer, however, that the insect lives 

 both in the larval and adult conditions upon grain ; and furthermore, 

 that were the insect more prolific it would become a source of much 

 damage to seed stock, from its habit of devouring the embryo, or germ, 

 going from kernel to kernel, and destroying for germinating purposes 

 many more seeds than it consumes. Both larvae and beetles serve a 

 good purpose by attacking and destroying whatever other grain insects 

 they happen to encounter." — (F. H. C.) 



The infestation is recorded as being found in cereals, nuts, and 

 almonds, besides other material, including bread, as noted by Dr. 

 Taschenberg,* whence the German name of "Bread Beetle." It is 

 also noted as being sometimes found in dead trees ; and the beetle is 

 observed by Taschenberg to be found at large under bark, or in decayed 

 wood, where more or less it must have lived on prey, " wo sie mehr, 

 oder weneger vom Eaube leben durften." 



But though the decidedly insectivorous propensities of this infes- 

 tation have long been known, I have not been able to find any precise 

 description of the method of their operations (nor have I seen it 

 myself in the case of the beetle). In the past season, however, in the 

 course of some observations which I was making on the Rust-red Flour 

 Beetles {Tribolium ferrugineum), I had occasion to keep a number of the 

 beetles and larva in a sample of the Wheat-flour in which they had 

 been imported from New Orleans, and with these were two larvae of 

 * ' Praktische Insektenkunde,' pt. ii. pp. lfi-18. 



