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AN IMPORTED LIBRARY PEST. 



By E. A. SCHWAKZ. 



Nicohium {Anohium) liirtum 111., of the coleoiJteroiis family Ptiuidse, is 

 a native of southern Europe, where its larva has been occasionally found 

 in libraries to burrow in the leather bindings and backs of old and little- 

 used books, or in ancient documents written on parchment. The insect 

 is, however, only locally abundant in Europe, so that it is not consid- 

 ered a serious library pest, and is not mentioned for this reason in most 

 works on European economic entomology. l\y one way or another the 

 insect has found its way to North America, but has always been 

 regarded as a great rarity with us, since hitherto only a few specimens 

 have been accidentally found in Korth Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 

 The following extracts from our correspondence 

 prove, however, that this suj)i)osed rare insect is in 

 reality far more abundant with us than is desirable. 

 About three years ago Prof. H. A. Morgan, of Baton 

 Kouge, sent to the Department for determination a 

 specimen of this species which he had "bred from 

 a book taken from our library, and in instances where 

 books have remained undisturbed for a considerable 

 time this insect has done considerable damage" 

 (letter dated May 26, 1892). This happened at the 

 Fig. u.— Nicohium Mr- Louisiana State library, but we are not aware that 

 «wm; adult beetie-eu- pi'ofessor Morgan ha s cvcr published anything on 



larged (origiual). ^ ^ jo 



the subject. A more serious state of affairs was 

 recently reported by Mr. 0. M. Widman, S. J., librarian of St. Charles 

 College at Grand Coteau, La., who sent us a lot of the larvae, accom- 

 panied by the following letter, dated December 10, 1894: 



Our case is this: We have a library of some eight or nine thousand volumes, some 

 of them valuable aucient editions long out of print. A few insects were found, I 

 remember, about twenty-five years ago, but as they seemed harmless no one paid 

 much attention to them. Later on, about twelve years ago, they had made consid- 

 erable jirogress, which we tried to check in different ways. The location of the 

 library was changed twice or three times; the books were inspected, moved, and 

 cleaned at least once a year, the damaged books being visited repeatedly almost 

 jiage by page and worms taken out; corrosive sublimate in solution was dropped iu 

 to kill eggs, etc. But nothing has succeeded so far, and we see the time when we 

 shall have to burn jiart of our books to save the other part. The worms attack espe- 

 cially old books with soft pajier and paper bindings. If the books be thick, they 

 generally do uot advance deep, but spoil the first and last pages and the binding. 

 Books with thick and solid paper are less exposed; but then they attack the back 

 of the book, thus causing the leaves to fall out of. the binding. 



It would appear from this communication that this beetle has firmly 

 establi.shed itself as a library post at least in Louisiana, and we have 

 no doubt that a careful search among the older libraries iu the South 



