397 
will reveal its presence at other places. When and where it was orig- 
inally introduced can not now be ascertained, Dr. LeConte's original 
specimen having been either collected by himself or sent to him pre- 
vious to 1862. 
In the more northern States the insect has never been found, and 
judging from the behavior of other Old World insects that have been 
introduced into the southern portion of Xorth America, it is not likely 
that this Mcobiuin will spread northward. There is danger, however, 
that it may be imported again directly from Europe into the libraries 
of our more northern cities, and our librarians will do Avell upon pur- 
chasing ancient leather-bound works from Europe to examine them 
closely before incorporating them in the library. 
In the library of the Department of Agriculture is a set of six folio 
volumes of Olivier's Histoire Xaturelle des Insectes, published a cen- 
tury ago, the leather binding of which has been attacked by insects, 
several exit holes corresponding to the size of Xicobiuin while the 
remainder were evidently made by a smaller insect of about the size of 
Sitodrejm panieea. It is probable that these two ptinids were the 
species concerned in the damage. 
The larva of Xicobium hirtum does not differ in general appearance 
from other ptinid larvae, i. e., it closely resembles a white grub" in 
miniature in shape and characteristic curvature of the body. It is 
covered with sparse but rather long hairs, while even a feeble magni- 
fying glass will show numerous short, brownish spines, with which the 
larger portion of the dorsal surface is furnished. Although the legs 
are well developed, the larvae are barely able to make use of them, and 
if shaken from the books they are utterly unable to climb back to the 
shelves.* 
The general appearance of the beetle (Fig. 44) deserves a few words, 
since the presence of this pest in a library is liable to make itself known 
from specimens of the beetle being seen crawling about, more espe- 
cially on the window panes. It is of elongate oval, cylindrical form, 
between 3 and 4 inm (.12 to .16 inch) in length, its color rather light 
brown, but rendered grayish by a dense, short, and somewhat velvety 
pubescence. This pubescence, however, does not uniformly cover the 
elytra, but is here absent on two or three transverse bands of which 
the anterior is usually quite distinct, while the two posterior ones are 
less distinct, often confluent or broken up into spots. This peculiar 
arrangement of the pubescence, as well as the strongly punctate elytral 
stria*, render this species at once recognizable from all other beetles 
which are liable to occur in the rooms of a library. In addition to 
this short, appressed pubescence, the dorsal surface is furnished with 
moderately sparse, but rather long, erect hairs. 
In the comparatively few instances where injury to books in our more 
northern libraries has been reported, the author of the mischief has 
* A very useful synoptic table of ptinid larva?, including: that of yicobium hirtum, 
is published by Ed. Penis in his Larves de Colfoptferes, page 248. 
