14 PAEMERS* BULLETIN 178. 



Town, South Africa, in lumber received from the southern United 

 States, and at Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the ash wood in refrigera- 

 tors and shovel handles from the United States. 



The southern Lyctus has been recorded as breeding under natural 

 conditions in this country and is common in the Southern States in 

 commercial products, such as seasoned ash, oak, hickory, persimmon, 

 and sycamore. Rearing records show that it may breed continuously in 

 the same wood during a period of at least six years, or until all the 

 wood tissue has been converted into powder. The beetles emerge 

 from infested wood of commercial products in heated buildings much 

 earlier than where exposed to outdoor conditions. Owing to the 

 character of the class of commercial products infested by Lyctus 

 beetles, which are often stored indoors, there apparently are no great 

 differences in the periods of activity of adults of species of northern 

 and southern distribution. 



Adults of this southern species are active from the middle of Feb- 

 ruary till the last of September in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, 

 (xeneral emergence of the adult beetles and mating occur from the 

 middle of April to June, and very few beetles emerge at Washington, 

 D. C, after the first part of July. Egg laying occurs a few days after 

 emergence, and the eggs hatch after a period of not longer than 10 

 days. The winter is passed as larvae in the wood, and full-grown 

 larvae are in the pupal cells at Washington by the first part of Feb- 

 ruary. General pupation of the larvae in the infested avoocI in rear- 

 ing experiments at Falls Church, Va., occurred from about the mid- 

 dle of March to the first part of April. 



THE VELVETY LYCTUS.i 



The velvety Lyctus is rusty red-brown to black, slender, flattened, 

 and elongate, and from one-twelfth to one-sixth inch in length. The 

 punctures on the wing covers are very fine and obscure and not 

 placed in row^s ; the fine, dense, yellowish hairs on the wdng covers are 

 prominent, which gives the beetle a velvety appearance. 



Extensive observations have been made on the habits of this spe- 

 cies, which has been recorded as injurious in Texas, Louisiana, 

 Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia. West Virginia, District 

 of Columl)ia, Long Island, Xew York. Ohio, and ^Missouri. 



The natural distribution of the species is evidently in the South 

 Atlantic and Gulf States and in part of the Mississippi and Ohio 

 River Valleys, from which it has been temporarily introduced into 

 other States. 



This beetle infests the seasoned sapwood of commercial products 

 made from persimmon, hickor3^ ash, oak, and bamboo; it also lives 



1 Lyctus paraUelopipcdus Melsh. 



