6 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



or rounded at the sides, a feature which so alters her 

 appearance that a novice would be certain to divorce her 



FIG. 5. Ptinus fur (A, male ; B, female). 



from her husband, and consider her a distinct species. It 

 is a reddish-brown, hard insect, with two narrow and some- 

 what indistinct bands of white hairs on the elytra ; the 

 head is so much bent under the thorax that it cannot be 

 seen from above, so that the insect appears as though it 

 had been decapitated. The legs are long and straggling, 

 notwithstanding which the creature is slow and heavy in 

 its movements. The thorax is a good deal contracted 

 behind, appearing as though it had been tied round 

 tight while soft, and had hardened in that condition. 

 By attending to these few points of distinction, there 

 can scarcely be much difficulty in recognising a Ptinus. 



This insect is a great foe to Natural History collections, 

 whether of animals or plants : and if by any chance it 

 can manage to effect a surreptitious entrance into such, 

 it does its best to execute the sentence " dust to dust " 

 upon them. But its tastes are varied, and range from 

 such excellent diet as the precious grain stored in 

 granaries to the apparently less attractive nutriment 



