lo Furniture Beetles. 



The instinct by which many insects are led at the first sign of 

 danger to draw in the legs and antennae to the sides or beneath 

 the body, and then remain perfectly motionless like bits of 

 inanimate matter is very strongly marked in these little beetles. 

 They are noted for their persistency in " shamming death " while 

 undergoing quite rough treatment. But the stories told of their 

 stoicism at such times are sometimes greatly exaggerated. A puff 

 of tobacco smoke well directed very quickly sets them on their 

 legs again. 



The tapping with which they are credited in common with the 

 true death-watch beetles has never been witnessed by the present 

 writer, who has many times kept them under close observation 

 especially during the pairing season, when the tapping should, if 

 at any time, be made. 



Pairing begins and goes on freely soon after the beetles have 

 come out from the wood, and a day or so later the females are 

 to be seen in search of suitable places in which to deposit their 

 eggs ; or they may return through the exit holes to lay them 

 inside the wood near the entrances to the old burrows. The 

 ovipositor of the female can be extended telescope-fashion to the 

 length of more than half her body, and carries at the end two 

 little appendages which appear to act as feelers. When seeking a 

 place to lay her eggs, the female extends her ovipositor, bends it 

 first to one side then to another, exploring the surface, until it 

 touches upon some slit or crack suitable to receive the eggs. 

 There she deposits them, one or two at a time, sometimes in 

 greater number, according to the length or size of the receptacle, 

 and then continues the search and deposits others until her whole, 

 supply is exhausted. She seems to avoid, if possible, laying her 

 eggs on a smooth or exposed surface. The average number of 

 eggs laid by each female is not known, but it is probably less than 

 a score. 



The, eggs (Fig. 2) are oval, or lemon-shaped, white in colour, 

 and so small that one of them placed on the small letter "o" of 

 diamond type, would not quite cover it. Those represented in the 

 figure, magnified 40 diameters, were laid in a crack in the bottom 

 of a small wooden box, in which some of the beetles were being 

 kept under observation. 



The Im-vae hatch out three or four weeks after the eggs are 

 laid, and either begin at once to burrow into the wood or wander 

 about a Httle at first over its surface. At this time they are very 

 small, and are straight-bodied, instead of having the body strongly 



