STONE AND WOOD BORERS 349 



that this delicate little thing should "worm-eat" the 

 hardest limestone. It has no jaws, but one of the rings 

 or segments of the front part of the body has two of its 

 bristles swollen to relatively gigantic size, hard and black. 

 These are its boring organs, but I have no doubt that it is 

 helped, especially in its young state when commencing to 

 bore, by an acid secretion from the surface of the body. 



Curiously enough, in the strict sense of the word 

 " worm," the boring of chalk and stones by the little 

 marine creature just mentioned (whose name is Polydora) 

 is the only instance of a " worm-eaten " condition being 

 produced by a real worm. The worm-eaten condition 

 of wood is produced either by the grub of a minute 

 beetle (which is not in the strict sense a " worm " ) or by 

 an ingenious human maker of "antiques" who imitates 

 the little holes on the surface of the woodwork of old 

 furniture, so as to pass off clever reproductions for really 

 ancient cabinet work. The little holes to imitate those of 

 the true insect furniture-borer are sometimes produced by 

 discharging a gun loaded with fine shot at the piece of 

 furniture which is to be passed off as ancient. But 

 knowing purchasers probe the holes so made with a carpet 

 needle, and discover the lead-shot sunk in the wood. 

 Hence there has arisen a profession of specially-skilled 

 " worm-eaters," who, by careful boring, imitate the holes 

 made by insect grubs. 



And now we come at last to the actual, real furniture 

 worm or grub. It is the grub of a small beetle the 

 Anobium domesticum, scarcely one-fifth of an inch long 

 (Fig. 62 c~), greyish-brown in colour, of a cylindrical shape, 

 with the head completely concealed or overhung by the 

 next division of the body, the thorax. The grubs are 

 longer, soft, pale, and fleshy. The sign of the presence 

 of the Anobium in your furniture is the existence of small 

 circular holes here and there on the surface of the wood, 



