16 BOOT BEETLE. 



maggot-galleries, which were for the most part where 

 the paste had been applied, but in some places ran 

 further on, and were as clearly traceable as those of 

 many kinds of maggots often are between the bark and 

 wood of attacked trees. 



At first there was some uncertainty as to the kind of 

 beetle that caused the damage, but on the samples of 

 injured boots being sent, I found the beetle was present 

 in the galleries, as well as the dead maggot, and that it 

 was the well-known and destructive Anobium paniceum, 

 the so-called "Paste Beetle" of Europe. 



The method of life of the Anobium paniceum in the 

 attack under consideration was obviously for the maggots 

 to feed in the infested boot between the linen and leather 

 (as described above), and there to turn to chrysalids, 

 from which in due time the beetles came out. We found 

 the insect present in all its stages, larva, pupa, and 

 perfect beetle, in the injured manufactures. 



The maggots were too much dried to allow of precise 

 description of their appearance in life, but this special 

 kind is described by Prof. Westwood as being white and 

 curved, and similar to those of other Anobia. These 

 resemble Chafer maggots in miniature, being soft, 

 cylindrical, fleshy, and slightly pilose, with a scaly head 

 (armed with robust-toothed jaws) ; six legs ; the last 

 segment of the body large.* 



At what stage of the making of the boots, or of their 

 exportation, or of their storage on arrival at the Colony, 

 the attack commenced there was no evidence given. It 

 was stated by one of the firms in correspondence with 

 me, that they did not find the attack in goods which 

 remained in their retail shops in England even for two 

 or three years, and also that they never had complaints 

 regarding infestation of goods exported to Australia or 

 to the Brazils, but nearly all the complaints came from 

 Cape Town, or from Port Elizabeth, in Cape Colony. 



* The above description of Anobium larvse is abridged from that given 

 in Prof. Westwood's ' Introd. to Classification of Insects,' vol. i. p. 271. 



