WOOD-BORING BEETLES 



They become a chrysalis in their burrows, enveloping 

 themselves in a silken cocoon, in which are interwoven 

 particles of the dust they make. On emerging from the 

 chrysalis they remain inactive for some time, not coming 

 out of their burrows, and only gradually acquiring their 

 normal colour and consistency, and with these their 

 activity. 



An insect allied to Anobium domesticum, and formerly 

 referred to the same genus, but now known as Xesto- 

 bium tessellatum, has often been a 

 source of terror to the superstitious, 

 by whom it is known as the Death 

 Watch. It is a stout reddish-brown 

 beetle, sprinkled with small patches 

 of pale hairs ; but, while very similar 

 in shape, it is a great deal larger than 

 any of the Anobia proper, sometimes 

 attaining a length of one-third inch, 

 and a corresponding obesity (Fig. 3). 



The ticking or clicking noise that 

 is sometimes heard in old houses, and 

 has so often been considered to por- 

 tend the death of some inhabitant of 

 the dwelling within the year, is caused by these insects 

 striking the wooden walls of their burrows with their 

 hard heads or jaws, and is generally supposed to be a 

 love-call, for when one has made some four or five 

 taps in quick succession, it pauses, and is immediately 

 answered by another in some different quarter. The 

 tapping is not sufficiently loud to attract much attention 

 in the daytime, when so many other noises are going on ; 

 but in the stillness of the night, when every sound that 

 does occur seems magnified to an enormous degree, this 

 regular succession of knocks, proceeding from no apparent 



FIG. 3. Xestobium 

 tessellatum. 



