BULLETIN 737, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



are especially liable to infestation, holes being bored through the 

 wrappers and frequently through the cork tips. The interior of the 

 cigarette is filled with refuse, and the wrapper becomes soiled and 



discolored. Smoking (fig. 



2) or chewing tobacco be- 

 comes badly worm eaten. 

 In pressed kinds, such as 

 plug tobacco and pressed 

 and sliced smoking tobacco, 

 galleries are formed. In 

 pressed plug tobacco (fig. 



3) the wrapper is cut and 

 the edges furrowed. Gran- 

 ulated and fine-cut types 

 become mixed with the 

 dust and refuse from feed- 

 ing and with the dead 

 bodies of adult beetles. 

 Pupal cells occur on the 

 sides of the containers or 

 in the tobacco. Leaf to- 

 bacco (fig. 4) is infested in 

 much the same manner as 

 cigars. The larvae bore 

 holes in every direction 

 through the leaves. Fine 

 wrapper tobacco is often 

 so badly injured that it is 

 worthless. In leaf tobacco 



Fig. 4. — Damage to cigar tobacco by the tobacco , used as filler, Or in manil- 

 beetle (Lasioderma serricorne). £ , -> , i rv 



iactured tobacco or snuff, 

 the damage is confined more to the tobacco actually consumed by 

 the larvae than is the case with attacks of the insect on the manu- 

 factured product. 



CLASSIFICATION AND SYNONYMY. 



The family Ptinidae, to which the tobacco beetle belongs, is com- 

 posed of small insects which rarely exceed one-fourth of an inch in 

 length. The head is usually retracted, the body more or less cylin- 

 drical and firm, and the wing covers firm. The species vary greatly 

 in form, and several species belonging to the family have been widely 

 distributed by commerce. Although the family is quite large, com- 

 paratively few species are economically important and injurious; 



