19 
Sturm and Loew. The former description I have not seen ; the latter is 
evidently erroneously cited. The figure (G,a) shows its general appear- 
ance and the arrangement of its vestiture. The ground color is dark- 
reddish brown, the vestiture reddish. The dorsal surface is strongly 
convex and rather sparsely covered with short, coarse, somewhat scale- 
like hairs appressed to the surface and very sparsely interspersed with a 
few coarser erect hairs arranged in a transverse row on each segment. 
A tuft of longer hairs proceeds from each side of the head and the tho- 
racic segments. The lateral hairs of the abdominal segments are 
longer, and arranged as in the figure, the anal segment terminating in a 
pencil of long, delicate hairs. The head is thickly covered with sub- 
erect reddish hair; the antennae are four-jointed, and terminate in a seta. 
The ventral surface is whitish, and rather thickly covered with appressed 
reddish pubescence. The full-grown larva measures about 8 mm. 
The pupa, figured at b, is white and delicate in structure, and cov- 
ered with fine, light, fulvous, fiocculent pubescence. It is larger than 
the adult, measuring about 5 mm. Each of six of the abdominal seg- 
ments is provided with a short transverse curved plate, which faces a 
corresponding plate on the next segment, as shown at d. 
Trogoderma tarsale Melsh. 
One jar of flaxseed from the museum exhibit of the Department is 
infested chiefly by this common museum pest. Many of the larva' may 
be seen through the glass, and large patches of their yellowish-brown 
gnawings and excrement show where they have been at work. In castor 
beans a few larvae were present. 
That these species of Trogoderma can subsist on a vegetable diet is 
as positive as it is surprising. No other Coleoptera to my knowedge 
live on oil seeds, and I had nearly arrived at the conclusion that as this 
form of matter was the nearest approach to animal food available, that 
these insects could only thrive on such vegetable substances as contain 
a considerable proportion of oleaginous matter. Judge of my aston- 
ishment, then, when a few weeks after the discovery of the Trogoderma 
living in oil seeds, Dr. Howard brought me a box nearly full of cayenne 
pepper in which were several Trogoderma larva 1 . The most careful 
search failed to show even fragments of that well-known red pepper 
pest, Sitodrepa panicea, or of any other insect than the dermestid. 
Subsequently the adult was reared and proved to be Trogoderma tarsale. 
It seeming desirable to ascertain if this species would breed on so 
pungent a substance as cayenne pepper, a few adults were confined with 
a quantity of this condiment. In due time larvae appeared, and when 
examined August 20, or nearly ten weeks from the time the eggs were 
deposited, were in vigorous condition, the average individual measur- 
ing a tenth of an inch in length, or about half that oi' the full-grown 
larva. Toward the end of September, while passing through the 
