4 BULLETIN 737, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF 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 larve bore 
holes in every direction 
through the leaves. Fine 
wrapper tobacco is often 
so badly injured that it is 
nay Wand oe 9 worthless. In leaf tobacco 
Fic. 4.._Damage to cigar tobacco by the tobacco used as filler, or in manu- 
beetle (Lasioderma serricorne). : Sere tobacea an snuff 
RO, 
the damage is confined more to the tobacco actually consumed by 
the larvee 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 smail 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; 
