238 INSECTS 



habits. The drug beetles, Sitodrepa panicea, and the 

 cigarette beetles, Lasioderma serricorne, are examples of 

 such forms and, in the adult stage, are little, brown, 

 more or less cylindrical species, not much if any over 

 one-tenth of an inch in length. The eggs are laid in or 

 on almost any kind of wood or leaf tissue, and the larvae 

 which are very small, curved, white grubs, bore into this 

 tissue reducing it to powder. Cigarettes, cigars and 

 plug tobacco are often attacked and little round holes 

 through the surface tell the tale of the destroyer. So 

 the roots of licorice and hellebore are equally favorites, 

 and may be reduced to powder, while occasionally 

 willow- and rattan- ware is seriously injured. 



The somewhat larger species of Hadrobregmus, and 

 the species of Lyctus or powder post beetles belonging 

 to the same family, occur in the woodwork of houses 

 or in furniture, and may create serious trouble. They 

 live and bore in the seasoned wood, mining it in every 

 direction and in time reducing it to a mass of powder. 

 Little round holes, from which sometimes little masses 

 of sawdust are ejected, declare the character of the 

 insects at work here, and for them there is no one 

 method of treatment. Creosote, gasoline, tar, paint 

 and similar penetrating or covering mixtures are ap- 

 plied with more or less good effect, and which of them 

 is to be used depends upon the especial conditions of 

 the attack. 



In the order Lepidoptera, the "clothes moths" have 

 become adapted to a life in our dwellings and are rarely 

 found elsewhere. They belong to the great group of 

 Tineid moths in which the early or primitive characters 

 of the order are yet well marked, and as a relic of their 

 ancestral habits they retain the practice of making cases 

 or shelters in the larval stage. This serves as a protec- 

 tion to the caterpillar and as a means of concealment; 



