REPORT OP THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 259 



tion of this insect from any particular warehouse or tannery, but learned 

 from tanners that it was quite common in old hides, and was by them 

 called •• the dry hide- worm." 



In tlic warehouses and manufactories the insect stdl retained its par- 

 tiality for undressed leathers, and an examination at once shows that the 

 soles and heels of boots and shoes are more liable to injury than the 

 uppers. It seems probable that the comparative immunity of the uppers 

 is due to the oily dressing used in the finishing processes. They do not, 

 however, entirely escape, for occasionally they are found bored by th© 

 larva or roughened and eroded by the beetle. 



UNRECORDED POINTS IN ITS HABITS AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



Like its other congeners this species has been known in the past to 

 feed upon skins ajjd hides, and to be ]>articulnrly found about rendering 

 houses. We have found it in association with D. marmoratus under 

 buffalo bones in Kansas, have reared it from dry entomological speci- 

 mens in Saint Louis, and have received it through the State Depart- 

 ment as very injurious to hams in Arizona. 



Westwood (Introduction, &c., vol. i, pp. 157, 158) quotes Kirby as 

 authority for the statement that the larvie were found in some speci- 

 mens of ''flexible asbestos called Amianth, and which they had per- 

 forated in various directions, undergoing their transformations therein."' 

 He then remarks : " That these holes were not made merely for the pur- 

 pose of the insect becoming a pupa therein is evident, since they are 

 not very particular in selecting a spot for this purpose, not only becom- 

 ing pupie in the excuvim of the animal they have devoured, but even 

 under their own excrement, iloreover the holes were of various sizes.'' 

 lie also states that the species was at one time so injurious in the largo 

 skin warehouses in London that £2,000 was offered as a reward for an 

 available remedy, but without any being discovered; also as being quite 

 injurious to cork, an entire cargo of that article having been destroyed 

 by the insect feeding upon the cork as well as upon the timbers of tlie 

 ship. 



In the Entomologisfs 2lonihhj Magazine (London), for December, 1884 

 (vol. -i, p. IGl), "Six. James J. Walker gives an account of the exceiJtioual 

 abundance ol the species around the bone-boiling works atQuecnborough 

 iu England, and thedihiculty which the workmen found in keeping the 

 insects out of their houses, to the woodwork of which they did much 

 damage. A thick oak plank was shown him, about 12 feet long by 1 

 foot wide, reduced lo a perfect honeycomb by tiic ravages of the Bcr- 

 mestcs larvae. They had bored into the solid wood to pupate. This is 

 (ho only recent reference to the wood-boring habit of the larva which 

 has been so consi>icuous in the injury which it has done to the boot and 

 shoe trade. 



The eggs (Plate VI, Fig. 2 a) have not been noticed on the shoes, but 

 from a lot of living beetles obtained on November 12 we secured eggs on 

 November IG. The beetles, together with a number of larvai, were 

 placed in a jar with some sausage and some bits of blotting-paper. The 

 «'ggs were thrust in between the layers of the blotting-paper, the beetles 

 aiiparently preferring a tight crevice. The eggs are pure white, highly 

 polished, nearly cylindrical, slightly larger at one end than at the other, 

 and are very delicate. They are 2°"^ long by CS"""^ wide at the thickest 

 end, and are encircled by about twenty shallow transverse impressed 

 lines. 



We are not prepared to say how many eggs are usually deposited by 



