22 TEXAS NATURE OBSEEVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



into the globular forms similar to 

 these seen in Fig. 4 and similar to 

 the genesis of other forms of in- 

 sect life. 



The harm these minute insects 

 are liable to do to tobacco, food 

 stuffs and drugs is often enor- 

 mous, and they are often a great 

 plague to dealers in tobacco and 

 drugs and, because of their minute 

 size and rapid movements, are dif- 

 ficult to exterminate. Being 

 "winged as other beetles, they can 

 fly and migrate to distant places 

 and there perform the same havoc 

 and multiply enormously. 



Both these minute beetles above 

 ^described tally with the observa- 

 tions of Dr. L. 0. Howard, (Farm- 

 ers' Bulletin 120) and Dr. F. H. 

 Chittenden (Bulletin No. 4, Divis. 

 Entom. U. S. Department of Ag- 

 riculture and in our case the 

 matter is the more, interesting, 

 having found and depicted the 

 larvae in situ and the larva of the 

 drug store beetle encapsulated in 

 the peculiar globular cocoons de- 

 scribed and illustrated herein. Dr. 

 Chittenden says in regard to the 

 tobacco beetle, " as a tobacco feed- 

 er it outranks that species (the 

 •drug store beetle) and also ap- 

 pears to favor certain medicinal 

 plants not so often affected by the 

 sitodrepa (drug store beetle.) 



"Of household supplies it has 

 been found infesting cayenne pep- 

 per, ginger, rhubarb, rice, figs, 

 yeast cakes and prepared fish 

 food. It has been reported as 

 destructive to silk and plush up- 

 holstery and the past year did 

 considerable damage to dried and 

 preserved herbarium specimens in 

 Washington. Of drugs it is par- 

 tial to ergot and turmeric and to- 

 bacco it devours in every form. ' ' 



The druggists and tobacco deal- 

 ers throughout the country un- 

 doubtedly are familiar with the 

 above minute pests and this mat- 

 ter, I believe, will be appreciated 

 by reading these memoranda on 

 same. 



On another occasion I happened 

 to shell out another larval beetle 

 from a cigar in its maturing cycle 

 of development — and a most in- 

 teresting study it was ! Its cubic 

 length was only about one-eighth 

 of an inch, and it was in its shed- 

 ding stadium. After detecting 

 this specimen, which was partly 

 (its thoracic and head parts, an- 

 tennae, legs and part of the ab- 

 domen) denuded of its previous 

 external integument or hull and of 

 white color. I mounted it in 



Photo-Micrograph of Maturing Tobacco 



Beetle Larvae 



Highly Magnified.Original one-eighth inch. 



glycerine on a slide glass, and at 

 once prepared the pho-miero- 

 graph seen herein, which I believe 

 an unusually interesting and rare 

 specimen to study the genesis of 

 such minute beetles. 



The microscope and the photo- 

 graphic reproduction from the 

 original specimen s'how how the 

 developing offspring of this min- 

 ute larva (hardly one-eighth of 

 an inch long) sheds its previous 

 integumental environments and 

 gradually, by mean^ of rythmical 



