Volumf III, Xumber 



NOTES ON THE HABITS OF EUROPEAN AND 

 NORTH AMERICAN CUCUJIDAE (sens, auct.) 



By William Morton Wheeler 



Family Silvanidse Boving. 



Oryzsp,philus surinamensis L. (Fig. 7.) The "saw-toothed 

 grain-beetle" the mo.st abundant, most widely distributed and 

 best-known species of the family.' It is cosmopolitan and gre- 

 garious; living in nearly all stored human foods of vegetable 

 origin; cereals (rice, wheat, maize, barley, etc.), ground or un- 

 ground or in the form of paste (macaroni), bread etc.; dried 

 fruits, nuts, copra, more rarely in sugar, starch, drugs, tobacco, 

 snuff or dried meats. The larva, which is very active, is also 

 gregarious, living with the beetles and evidently capable of 

 thriving on most of the substances mentioned (Glover, 1869; 

 Guillebeau, 1890; Chittenden, 189-5, 1897, 1911; J. B. Smith. 

 1909; Girault, 1912). When ready to pupate it may make a 

 rude cocoon by agglutinating particles of food detritus with an 

 oral secretion. The pupa is sometimes free, however, i. e., 

 not inclosed in a cocoon, and is attached by its hind end to 

 the shrivelled larval skin which has been previously attached 

 to the substratum (Blisson, 1849: Coquerel, 1849; Chittenden, 

 1895). During the summer the whole life-cycle requires about 

 twenty-four days, in spring from six to ten weeks. There are 

 six or seven generations a year in the latitude of Maryland, and 

 in that latitude it winters over as an adult (Chittenden, 1895). 

 It seems to be present wherever the Indian-meal moth (Plodia 

 interpunctella) is found (Chittenden, 1897) and has often been 

 found living with another common grain-pest, the Curculionid 

 Calandra 07-yzse (Ferris, 1853; Ganglbaur, 1899). In England 

 and Scotland the beetle has been repeatedly taken out of doors 



' I find that this or one of the closely allied species is figured by Redi 

 (1671) who refers to it as "vermiculus qui condita arrodit" and "vermis 

 conditorum et pharmacorum." Redi also figures the grain weevil, Calandra 

 oryzae. 



