396 
AN IMPORTED LIBRARY PEST. 
By E. A. Schwakz. 
NicoUum {AnoUum) Mrtum 111., of the coleopterous family Ptinidse, is 
a native of southern Europe, where its larva has been occasionally found 
in libraries to burrow in the leather bindings and backs of old and little- 
used books, or in ancient documents written on parchment. The insect 
is, however, only locally abundant in Europe, so that it is not consid- 
ered a serious library pest, and is not mentioned for this reason in most 
works on European economic entomology. In one way or another the 
insect has found its way to North America, but has always been 
regarded as a great rarity with us, since hitherto only a few specimens 
have been accidentally found in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 
The following extracts from our correspondence 
prove, however, that this supposed rare insect is in 
reality far more abundant with us than is desirable. 
About three years ago Prof. H. A. Morgan, of Baton 
Eouge, sent to the Department for determination a 
specimen of this species which he had "bred from 
a book taken from our library, and in instances where 
books have remained undisturbed for a considerable 
time this insect has done considerable damage" 
(letter dated May 26, 1892). This happened at the 
fig. u.-McoMum Mr- Louisiana State library, but we are not aware that 
turn.- adult beetle— en- Professor Morgan ha s ever published anything on 
larged (original). f . * V <L J 65 
the subject. A more serious state 01 affairs was 
recently reported by Mr. 0. M. Widman, S. J., librarian of St. Charles 
College at Grand Coteau, La., who sent us a lot of the larva?, accom- 
panied by the following letter, dated December 10, 1894: 
Our case is this: We have a library of some eight or niDe thousand volumes, some 
of them valuable ancient editions long out of print. A few insects were found, I 
remember, about twenty-five years ago, but as they seemed harmless no one paid 
much attention to them. Later on, about twelve years ago, they had made consid- 
erable progress, which we tried to check in different ways. The location of the 
library was changed twice or three times; the books were inspected, moved, and 
cleaned at least once a year, the damaged books being visited repeatedly almost 
page by page and worms taken out; corrosive sublimate in solution was dropped in 
to kill eggs, etc. But nothing has succeeded so far, and we see the time when we 
shall have to burn part of our books to save the other part. The worms attack espe- 
cially old books with soft paper and paper bindings. If the books be thick, they 
generally do not advance deep, but spoil the first and last pages and the binding. 
Books with thick and solid paper are less exposed; but then they attack the back 
of the book, thus causing the leaves to fall out of the binding. 
It would appear from this communication that this beetle has firmly 
established itself as a library pest at least in Louisiana, and we have 
no doubt that a careful search among the older libraries in the South 
