34 Farmers Bulletin 1260. 
CONFUSED FLOUR BEETLE.” 
The confused flour beetle (fig. 46) is a shiny, reddish-brown beetle 
about one-sixth of an inch long, flattened and oval in form, with head 
and upper parts of thorax 
densely covered with min- 
ute punctures and with 
wing covers ridged length- 
wise and sparsely punc- 
tured between the ridges. 
It is generally distributed 
over the world and is very 
abundant in all parts of 
this country. It is known 
as one of the flour beetles 
owing to its frequent oc- 
currence in flour. It is a 
Fic. 44.—The Siamese grain beetle. a, Beetle; lh general feeder on starchy 
antenna of same; ¢, larva; d,.pupa. @, ©, 4, foods and is probably the 
About ten times natural size; b, greatly en- : 
larged. worst insect pest of pre- 
pared cereal foods. Tt is constantly found 
in granaries, mills, and storehouses, and 
grain shipments. 
The minute white eggs of this beetle are 
laid in the cracks and crevices of bins, barrels, 
boxes, or other containers of the foodstuffs 
attacked by this insect. They are covered with 
a sticky secretion so that they become covered 
with flour, meal, etc., and readily adhere to 
the sides of sacks, boxes, and other containers 
so that fresh material placed in them is 
rapidly infested. The eggs hatch, into small 
wormlike larvee, slender, cylindrical, and wiry 
in appearance. When fully grown they are 
about three-sixteenths of an inch long, and 
in color are white, tinged with yellowish. 
lic. 45.—Adult of the 
These larve feed on flour or other material fiat grain beetle, show- 
such as grain dust and the broken surfaces "8 Characteristic long 
eae ul antenne. Not more 
of grain kernels. When full grown they trans- than onesixteenth of 
form to small naked pups. -At first white, 92 eh :lone 
beetle is one of the 
the pupe gradually change to yellow and very smallest found 
then brown, and shortly afterwards trans- . ‘ 879/m shipments. 
form to beetles. The period from egg to adult in summer is about 
four weeks under most favorable weather conditions, though the 
2 Tribolium confusum Duy. 
