48 Indian Insect Pests. [Vol. I. 



This insect has recently been noticed in America owing to the damage 

 it has done to stored boots and shoes, and its history has there been 

 investigated by Miss Murtfeldt and Dr. C. H. Riley, from the latter of 

 whose account, published in the Report of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture for 1885, the following particulars have been taken :— - 



"The insect was first noticed in the establishment of a wholesale manufacturer of 

 boots and shoes in Saint Louis in 1884, when a lot of boots and shoes were returned 

 condemned as ' wormy ;' about the same time the insects were found in numerous 

 leather houses throughout the city and invaded the manufactories, where they retained 

 their partiality for undressed leathers. The work of the larvae, both old and young, in 

 boots and shoes, consists in boring round smooth channels in every direction through 

 the leather, preferring the soles and heels, though the uppers do not entirely escape. 



" The adult beetle is principally occupied in the propagation of its species, yet is also 

 a leather-destroyer, gnawing and scoring the surface of the boot, but not burrowing 

 bodily into substance. The female has been observed to lay some score of nearly 

 cylindrical eggs, each about two millimetres long, pure white, highly polished, slightly 

 larger at one end than the other. The newly hatched larvae are almost white in color, 

 are covered with long hairs and are quite active, in a few hours acquiring the normal 

 brownish-grey color and burying themselves in their food ; they crawl with consider- 

 able rapidity, mounting smooth surfaces with ease ; they moult six times, at intervals 

 of about a week. The full grown larvae is a thick hairy brown grub, about 13 milli- 

 metres long and one-fourth as broad ; it tapers somewhat from the thorax to the 

 anal end, which is bluntly pointed and armed with a pair of thorn-like projections 

 There is a longitudinal stripe down the back, and the six legs are of a reddish-brown 

 color ; with these it crawls rapidly with a quick darting motion, dragging the hind 

 body on the surface over which it is passing. The pupa is sometimes found in the 

 larval burrow, but more often the full grown larva leaves the leather and seeks for a 

 crack in the box or floor, often burrowing for its length into the solid wood. In the 

 warehouses where the goods are boxed up in soft wood, the boards are often riddled 

 by these burrows, made by the larvae seeking for safe places for pupation — this in- 

 stinct of self-preservation being very necessary, as the larvae have a fondness for the 

 soft helpless pupae of their own species, even when other and more natural food 

 abounds. The beetle varies from eight mm. to twelve mm. in length. It presents, on 

 the upper surface, a rather uniform brownish or greyish black appearance, the general 

 color varying somewhat, according to maturity. In the more perfect specimens the 

 dorsal surface is clothed with a very short pale, yellowish and rufous pubescence. 

 The head and a broad band on each side of the thorax are more thickly covered with 

 denser and longer silver-white hairs, while the ventral surface is closely covered with 

 silvery-white pulvescence. Dr. Riley is of opinion that, while the whole of the stages 

 of the insect, from the deposition of the egg to the emergence of the perfect insects 

 may, under favorable circumstances, be gone through in a few weeks, under un- 

 favorable conditions of food and temperature they may extend even to years. 



" Where this insect has already effected an entrance, it would, according to Dr. Riley 

 be preferable to overhaul the contents of the box and to treat what is found to be 

 affected with benzine or other insecticide, but where this cannot be done without too 

 great expense, it will probably suffice to open each case and place an open saucer of 

 bisulphide of carbon on top of the contents. The liquid will volatilize, and the vapor 

 will sink down through the mass, if the box be tight, and will kill the insects in their 

 burrows. 



" A preventive will, however, be of greater importance than a remedy in this case, 

 and consists in clearing up and burning all clippings, scraps of leather and other refuse 

 that accumulate and become breeding-places for the insect, examining aud poisoning 

 hides as soon as they arrive, and frequently examining the stock on hand when there 

 is reason to suspect the presence of the beetle." 



