36 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



nocturnal in habits. Though so disgusting in smell, it 

 found a place in the Materia Medica of the Romans, 

 being recommended by Pliny as an infallible remedy 

 in the case of ulcers which would yield to no milder 

 treatment. 



The larva is a long narrow creature, with six short 

 legs in front, very similar to an ordinary meal worm, 

 to which, indeed, it is not very distantly related. It is 

 of a pale, yellowish- white colour, and not hairy, like those 

 of the Dermestidce. This, therefore, is the third type 

 of larv^, we have met with : the first, of the Ptinidce, 

 plump, fleshy, soft, pale, and curved ; the second, of the 

 Dermestidce, densely hairy, like moths' caterpillars ; and 

 the third, that of Slaps, long, narrow, and smooth. The 

 larva of an allied species has been turned to account 

 by the women of Egypt, who, following the precepts of 

 " insectarianism," are said to make a savoury dish of the 

 grub by roasting it and serving in butter, partaking of 

 it with a view to the cultivation of embonpoint. 



In order to find the other household members of the 

 Heteromera, we must leave for a time the cellars in 

 which we were hunting for our first representative of 

 the group the foul churchyard beetle and visit loca- 

 lities of an altogether different description, viz., bakers' 

 shops, bakehouses, flour-mills, and granaries. Farina- 

 ceous substances, such as wheat, barley, maize, meal, 

 flour, bread, cakes, &c., are specially liable to the attacks 

 of various species of beetles belonging, curiously enough, 

 to several totally distinct sections of the order. In stores 

 of corn in granaries no less than eighteen species of 

 beetles have been found amongst the refuse, though it 

 is probable that several of these were there, not to eat 

 the grain themselves, but to prey upon such of their 



