i8o 



AN ECO AW MIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



woollens. For this household pest a liberal use of napthaline in 

 crystals or balls, in trunks and closets, is advisable as a pre- 

 ventive. Where woollen garments are to be stored through 

 the summer they should be first thoroughly beaten or brushed 

 and sunned out, then wrapped in stout paper with the edges 

 pasted, or in cotton sheeting well sewed. Then, if laid away 

 in boxes or trunks, or hung in closets with napthaline crystals 

 between the layers, or on the shelves, or among the bundles, 

 little danger is to be feared. Where carpets are infested, it is 

 best to have them taken up, thoroughly beaten and cleaned, and 

 the floors thoroughly cleansed before they are relaid. Where 

 this is undesirable for any reason, gasoline may be used with 

 satisfactory results. Except on the cheapest fabrics it may be 

 safely used in liberal quantities without danger of injuring either 

 texture or colors, and wherever the liquid comes into contact 

 with either beetle or larv^a it kills at once. Eggs, however, are 

 not destroyed, and close watch must be kept for a week at least, 

 when a second application may be found necessary to reach the 

 larvae hatched since the first was made. Another method, 

 almost equally good but more troublesome, is to place a wet 

 cloth over the infested patches and press over it with a very hot 

 fiat-iron, the object being to drive hot steam or vapor through 

 the fabric and thus, practically, to cook the insects. In collec- 

 tions, tight boxes or cases and a free use of napthaline or 

 bisulphide of carbon, or both, are essential. 



Unity of habit in this family is marred by Byturus unicolor, 

 a little yellowish species which is densely covered with short silky 

 hair, and feeds in the blossoms of the red rasp- 

 FiG. 159. berry, where also its eggs are laid. The larvae 

 are white, nearly naked, and are found on the 

 inside of the berry when picked. The species has 

 not become seriously troublesome as yet, and is 

 mentioned here chiefly because of its unique 

 habits. 



^"^'eniarged.'''"' HistevidcB are small, oval, shining, very 



hard, black, bronzed or greenish beetles, with the 

 wing-covers cut off squarely behind, leaving the last segments 

 of the abdomen exposed. The legs are broad and flat, fitted for 

 digging, and the head is small, yet with quite prominent sharp 



