BULLETIN 737, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGBICULTTJBE. 



last two names may have originated from confusion of the species 

 with a field insect, the tobacco flea-beetle, Epitrix parvula, which 

 attacks growing tobacco, the holes eaten in the leaf showing in the 

 cured leaf tobacco and somewhat resembling holes made by the true 

 tobacco beetle, Lasiodemia serricorne. The name " cigarette beetle " 

 has been quite generally used in entomological literature but is not 



suitable as it conveys the impression 

 that the insect confines its work to 

 cigarettes whereas it is a general 

 feeder upon all cured tobacco prod- 

 ucts. Throughout this bulletin the 

 name " tobacco beetle," which was 

 used by Mr. E. A. Schwarz in earlier 

 accounts of the insect, is adopted, 

 as the present consideration of the 

 insect refers to its depredations 

 upon all forms of cured and manu- 

 factured tobacco. 



THE CHARACTER OF ITS INJURY. 



The injury caused by the tobacco 

 beetle is very great, owing to its 

 habit of occupying its food sub- 

 stance during all stages of its life. 

 The principal damage is done by the 

 larva or " worm ' 5 stage, and with 

 tobacco, as with other food sub- 

 stances, the actual amount consumed 

 usualty is of far less importance 

 than is the presence of refuse, ex- 

 crement, dust, and the dead beetles, 

 ■ CS which render the manufactured 



W wj W product unsalable. 

 V W The insect damages cigars (fig. 



1) and pressed tobacco b}' burrow- 

 ing small cylindrical tunnels which 

 later become filled with dust and ex- 

 crement. In cigars the holes may 

 extend from one side to the other, and in some instances the holes 

 or galleries may wind through the filler of the cigar, a large part 

 of the interior being thus destroyed without external evidence of 

 injury to the wrapper. The larvae often will work between two 

 closely packed cigars, slitting both wrappers lengthwise for some 

 .listance, and the pupal cells frequently are constructed between 



Fig. 1. — Cigars damaged by the tobacco 

 beetle < Lasioderma serricorne) show- 

 ing burrows of larvae and exit holes 

 of adults. 



