10 BULLETIN 137, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



or humidors in cigar stores. Records of returned shipments at cigar 

 and tobacco factories show that the majority come from retailers in 

 the Southern States and from localities where climatic conditions are 

 especially favorable for the rapid increase of the beetle. In view of 

 this fact it will be seen that the return of damaged goods to the manu- 

 facturers does not necessarily mean that the tobacco or cigars were 

 infested when shipped from the factory, the actual source of infesta- 

 tion often being the retail store or distributing point. Even in sum- 

 mer few complaints come from dealers in certain of the Northern 

 States and in Canada. Tobacco infested when shipped from the fac- 

 tory would certainly show damage in such localities if kept even for 

 a short time in warm weather, as experiments made by the writer 

 have shown repeatedly. 



Tobacco may become infested also in the hands of the retailer, 

 the beetles coming from other food substances such as yeast cakes in 

 grocery stores, or from vegetable substances used as drugs. 



In cigar or tobacco factories the beetles are being constantly intro- 

 duced in bales or hogsheads of imported leaf tobacco. Cigar manu- 

 facturers frequently keep bulk tobacco in bonded warehouses at the 

 port of entry until needed for fabrication. In many instances the 

 bales of tobacco remain in bond for a considerable length of time. 

 A large part of this tobacco comes from Cuba, where the beetle repro- 

 duces continuously throughout the year, and infested bales are 

 brought into the warehouses with every shipment. 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 



The original habitat of the tobacco beetle is not definitely known, 

 but probably the insect is native to warm or tropical parts of America. 

 YThen it was first described from America by Fabricius (1) in 1792 

 tobacco was not mentioned specifically as food, but the insect was re- 

 ported as infesting "American dried plants." 



The earliest account of injury to tobacco seems to have been that 

 by M. Planche (38), an inspector of tobacco factories, who reported 

 in 1848 that the insect had been found at Paris for the first time in 

 tobacco. It was thought to have been introduced from America. 

 Since 1848 there have been many references to the species in ento- 

 mological literature as destructive to tobacco and to various dried 

 vegetable substances. 



Chevrolat (13), in 1861, stated that the insect attacks cured to- 

 bacco, that it is acclimated in all parts of the world, and that in his 

 collection were specimens from both Americas, Algeria, Syria, Ger- 

 many, and Denmark. Le Conte (15), in 1865, mentioned the beetle 

 as having been carried by commerce over the entire globe, and stated 

 that it lives chiefly, although not exclusively, upon tobacco. Mr. E. 

 A. Schwarz (20), of the Bureau of Entomology, in 1883 stated that 



