CHAPTER X 



THE BISCUIT-* weevil'^ {AnoUum paniceum) 



' Let us be merry,' said Mr. Pecksniff. Here he took a captain's 

 biscuit. * It is a poor heart that never rejoices ; your hearts 

 are not poor. No ! ' — (Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit.) 



The first things to notice about the biscuit- 

 ' weevil,' so familiar to readers of Marry at 's 

 novels, is that it is not a weevil at all, and that 

 it attacks a great many other comestibles 

 besides biscuits. The so-called biscuit- 

 ' weevil ' is in truth an Anobium — Anohium 

 paniceum — a member of the family Ptinidae 

 and is closely allied to A. striatum, which makes 

 the little round holes in worm-eaten furni- 

 ture, so cleverly imitated by the second-hand 

 furniture-dealers. Another species of Anohium 

 (recently re-christened Xestohium tessellatum), 

 a somewhat larger insect, is destructive in 

 churches, libraries, and old houses. Their 

 mysterious tappings (which are really efforts 

 to attract the other sex — mere flirtations) 

 are the cause of much superstitious dread in 



^ Modern systematists now call the biscuit-' weevil' Sitodrcpa 

 panicea. 



Ill 



