52 



FOREST ENTOMOLOGY. 



Xestobium tessellatum (F.) 



This insect, which is given as an example in the second group, is 

 the largest of the British Anobiidas, and, according to Fowler, is 

 recorded from many English localities, but very rare in Scotland. 



The beetle is a large species, being about 7 mm. long. The head is 

 rather deeply sunk in the thorax, and the whole body is therefore 



cylindrical and rather convex. The ground 

 colour is dark-brown, but it is thickly covered 

 over with a yellowish pubescence, and towards 

 the abdomen there is an indistinct yellow band ; 

 antennae reddish, legs dark -brown. 



I am indebted to Mr Hereward Dollman for 

 kindly sending two specimens. 



The tribe Anobiina contains the species 

 found in old wood in houses, and in dead 

 wood generally. With regard to the former, 

 the beetle popularly known as the "Death 

 Watch " is perhaps the most familiar example. 

 The poet says, 



" The solemn death-watch clicked the hour she 

 died," 



and this saying is simply the expression of a 

 thorn stem burrowed by lame superstitious belief that the noise which the 



creature makes, and which is obviously most 

 distinct in the stillness of night by a sick-bed, is associated with the 

 supposed prognostication of a solemn death-warning. Several species 

 are said to produce this noise, but the best examples are Anobium 

 domesticum and Xestobium tessellatum. 





Fig. 51. Portionofdead haw 

 thorn i 

 of Priobium castaneum. 



Ernobius MOLLIS (L.) 



This species is very common in Northumberland, on larch and 

 spruce palings or poles. It prefers very dry wood. I have hatched 

 it from a spruce pole which had done duty as a flagstaff for several 

 years. On finding larvae under the bark in September, I cross-cut 

 the pole into small pieces, and placed them in a bag, hung from the 

 rafters of an open shed, and the beetles hatched out in intervals 

 from the middle of June to the end of July. I have discovered them 



