224 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



Where spraying or dusting is practised against the hornworm 

 it should be sufficient to destroy most of the miners, as, if 

 the leaf is thoroughly coated with poison, they would get a fatal 

 dose in starting a new mine. 



The Cigarette-beetle * 



The most serious pest of dried tobacco is the little brown 

 Cigarette-beetle, which also attacks various drugs and stored 

 food products. The beetle is but one- 

 sixteenth inch long, of a brownish color, and 

 with the pro-thorax bent down so that the 

 head is obscured as if under a hood. 



"Working as it does in all kinds of cured 

 tobacco and living in this substance during 

 all the stages of its existence," says Dr. 

 L. O. Howard, "it damages cigarettes and 

 cigars principally by boring out of them, 

 making round holes in the wrappers so that 

 they will not draw. Leaf tobacco is injured 

 for wrapping purposes by being punctured 

 with holes made both by the larvae and 

 beetles, and fillers and finecut are injured 

 by the reduction of their substance by the 

 actual amount consumed by the larvae." 

 "The cigarette-beetle is practically cosmo- 

 politan, and probably occurs in most tobacco 

 factories in the Southern States, as well as 

 in most wholesale drug stores. In the far 

 South this insect multiplies rapidly through- 

 out the greater part of the year, and its 

 development i s practically continuous i n 

 artificially warmed factories farther north." 

 Life History. In heated factories the in- 

 sect may be found in all stages throughout 

 the year. Otherwise it seems to pass the 

 winter months in the larval state. The 

 of larva is slightly larger than the beetle and 

 g covered with hair as shown in Fig. 190. 

 When full grown it spins a compact silky 



FIG. 189. Work 



Dept. Agr.) 



Lasioderma serricorne Fab. Family Ptinidaz. 



