WOOD-BORING BEETLES n 



Though Xestobium tessellatum is the principal beetle 

 which, in this country, has been identified with Death 

 Watch tickings, it is not alone in this claim to the 

 character of harbinger of death. Anobium domesticum 

 also ticks, and has, no doubt, scared many a rustic 

 equally with Xestobium. One entomologist at least 

 the indefatigable Professor Westwood once kept a 

 regular diary of its tickings, the particular specimens 

 whose doings were chronicled being inhabitants of a 

 wooden mantel in the Professor's study. They ticked at 

 intervals during the winter months, as well as at other 

 seasons, though at such times the noises could scarcely 

 have been intended, as they probably are during the 

 warmer months, as an exchange of compliments between 

 love-sick couples. 



Notwithstanding the obscurity and retirement of their 

 life, these wood-boring beetles have not managed to 

 escape the attacks of parasites. Several species of 

 ichneumon flies and other allied insects prey upon them ; 

 and the delicate little gauzy-winged persecutors may 

 sometimes be seen running about hither and thither 

 over Anobium-infested wood, in maternal anxiety to 

 find a suitable nidus for their brood. Some, too large 

 to enter the burrows, are furnished with a long ovi- 

 positor with which to reach their victims, into whose 

 bodies they insert their eggs. Others are small enough 

 to enter the burrows bodily, and hunt their prey like a 

 ferret after a rabbit. One of these latter, Theocolax 

 formiciformis, superficially something like a minute 

 ant, in consequence of the absence of wings, I have 

 obtained in .considerable numbers from a colony of 

 Anobium domestidum which had established themselves 

 in an old aquarium stand. 



Yet another member of this family of wood-borers, 



