116 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



that develop in refuse grain dust and mill products that are carelessly 

 permitted to accumulate in the dark corners and out-of-the-way places 

 in flouring mills, bakeries, stores, and stables. The two species are 

 about equally common and do not differ materially in their habits, 

 and although abundant enough wherever grain is stored, do little or no 

 damage to seed stock, being found mostly in corn meal and other ground 

 products. They are also of some importance as enemies to ship biscuit. 

 As with some of the other storehouse insects, the Tenebrios are not 

 an unmixed evil, for they have a commercial value to the bird fancier, 

 being used as food for nightingales, mocking birds, and other feathered 

 songsters. 



THE YELLOW MEAL-WORM. 



(Tenebrio molitor Limi.) 



The above-mentioned species is the meal- worm most often referred 

 to in scientific literature. Its name — Tenebrio, meaning one who shuns 

 the light; molitor, a miller — is suggestive of its habits and was given 

 to it by Linnaeus in the year 1761 Accounts of its larva, however, 



appeared many years 

 earlier, one of these, by 

 Thomas Moufet, dating 

 back to the year 1G34. 

 As it is in the larval 

 stage that this insect is 

 best known, the name 

 "yellow meal - worm" 

 is suggested to distin- 

 guish it from the con- 

 generic species, which 

 is much darker in color. 

 The larva (see fig. 54, a) 

 is cylindrical, long, and 

 slender, attaining a 

 length of upward of an 

 inch and being about 

 eight times as long- 

 as broad. It is waxen 

 in appearance, much resembling a wireworm. In color it is j^ellow, 

 shading to darker ochreous toward each end and near the articulatiou 

 of each joint. The anal extremity terminates in two minute spines, 

 not in a single point, as figured and described by Westwood and other 

 writers. The pupa (b) is white, and the adult insect, as will readily be 

 seen by reference to the illustration, (c) resembles on a large scale one of 

 the flour beetles. It is considerably over half an inch long, somewhat 

 flattened, shining, and nearly black. An enlarged antenna is shown 

 at e. 



e 



Fig. 54. — Tenebrio molitor: a, larva: b, pupa; c. female beetle; </, 

 egg, -with .surrounding case; c, antenna — a,b,c,d, about twice 

 natural, size; e, more enlarged (original). 



