BOOKWORMS IN FACT AND FANCY. 245 



the most important, perhaps, being that -of the Natural History 

 Museum Reports, at Albany, where Mr. J. A. Lintner found a hun- 

 dred volumes or more so badly damaged by roaches that they could 

 not be moved without coming to pieces. The United States Senate 

 Reports, bound in cloth and leather, some fresh and new, have been 

 badly damaged at Washington, in the efforts of these pests to get at 

 the paste with which the covers were fastened to the volumes. The 

 species known to commit these depredations are the " Croton bug " 

 (Blatta germanica), smaller than the others, but considered by some 

 writers as the worst pests of the family; a little larger species, called 

 Periplaneta orientalis; and a large species, known as Periplaneta 

 americana, or Kakerlac. Against two other species, Blatta aus- 

 tralasice and Blatta giganlea, there is not so much evidence. 



Among the moths, or millers, order Lepidoptera, are found sev- 

 eral species which injure books, the best known being the Aglossa 

 pinguinalis, commonly called " grease moth." The larva of this 

 species is at first a pale, flesh-colored grub, but as it matures it becomes 

 quite black. It injures bindings by constructing long " silken 

 tubes," in which it remains until full fed. Sometimes they spin a web 

 between the volumes, " gnawing small portions of the paper with 

 which to form their cocoons." This species belongs to the family 

 Pyralididce. Of the family (Ecophoridce two species are known to 

 injure books: Acompsia pseudospretella, and an undetermined species 

 of Depressaria. Under the name (Ecophora, William Blades de- 

 scribes the ravages of the former on two leaves of a " Caxton," and 

 accompanies his remarks with a photographic illustration of the dam- 

 aged leaves, from which it is at once seen how irregular is the gnaw- 

 ing of this species. The newspaper account of the finding of book- 

 worms in the Lenox Library not long ago classed the larvae found 

 with this species. 



The largest number of book-destroying insects are found among 

 the beetles, of the order Coleoptera. To this group belong the " book 

 borers." The species thus far considered have been more or less 

 dilettants in literature. The beetles, however, seem possessed with a 

 true spirit of investigation, and when they undertake a piece of work 

 in a serious fashion they go to the bottom of it, sticking close to the 

 line laid down. This characteristic distinguishes these insects from 

 all others, and makes it comparatively easy to determine when they 

 have been at work in a worm-eaten volume. No less than sixteen 

 different species of this order have been either detected in this work, 

 or such strong circumstantial evidence has been found against them, 

 .that there is little doubt as to their guilt. Some insects seem to de- 

 stroy books for the sheer want of something better to do ; some do so 

 in seeking the paste and sizing used in and about the books; others 



