178 FAMILY PTINIDAE 



Family PTINIDAE. 



This is a family of small beetles, usually cylindrical in shape, which 

 chiefly requires notice here owing to the powers exhibited by some of the 

 members of drilling into hard seasoned timber, the pin-holes in furniture in 

 Europe being due to the so-called Death Watch, a species of Anobium. 



In the beetle the tarsi are five-jointed, the first joint not smaller than 

 the second, as in the Bostrychidae. The head can be 

 Beetle. drawn in under the prothorax, which is at times hood- 



like, the antennae being slightly clubbed at the top in 

 some species. In colour the insects are dull, chiefly brown or black, although 

 the small Gibbium of the teak is bright red-brown. 



The larva rather resembles the lamellicorn grub (see fig. 46), the last 



segments of the body being curved, although they are 



Larva. not so bag-like as in lamellicorns, and less strongly 



corrugated ; the head is small, with a two-jointed 



antenna, and there are three pairs of thoracic legs. 



The larva often spins a cocoon at the end of its tunnel, in which it 

 pupates. 



The grubs of this family feed on a variety of substances, but only 

 those tunnelling into wood are considered here. Other species riddle 

 books, tobacco (e.g., the common cheroot-borer, Lasioderma testacea, Duft.), 

 and dried vegetable materials. The importance of the insects to the forester 

 lies in the fact that some species are serious pests to seasoned timber after 

 its conversion ; in this respect the insects also occur as pests in wood 

 museums. 



The family is divided into sub-families or divisions : 



1. Ptinides, in which the antennae are inserted in the forehead. 



2. Anobiides, the antennae being placed at the anterior margin of the 



eyes. 



It will be unnecessary here to treat of the insects of these sub-families in 

 detail. 



PTINIDES. 

 Ptinus fur, Linn. 



This is a small insect of world-wide distribution, which proves one of 

 the commonest of museum pests. 



Gibbium scotias, Fabr. 



A small wingless insect, very convex above, with joined elytra, brown 

 in colour, shining; one-fifth of an inch in length. It is a common house- 

 hold pest, also widely distributed in the world. 



Gibbium sp. 



I have taken a small bright red-brown and shining species of Gibbium 

 beneath the bark of dead sound teak-trees in Madras, but am unable to 

 say whether it does any damage to the timber. 



