16 
building and confined June 12 in a bottle with a small quantity of flour 
and meal. In a week or so the larvae could be seen at work through 
the glass. In five weeks they had reached the length of nearly a tenth 
of an inch, and August 20, or about ten weeks from the time of the eggs 
being laid, the larger individuals had grown to be two- tenths of an 
inch (5 mm.) long exclusive of the anal tuft, or over half the length of 
the full-grown larva. Four weeks later, September 21, they measured 
three-tenths inch (7.5 mm.). No perceptible, increase in size, except a 
possible broadening toward the head, could be detected in the largest 
individuals October 30. 
The dead bodies of the parent beetles, eight in number, were removed 
about five weeks from the time that they had been originally placed 
there. To my surprise, they had been scarcely injured — two had been 
decapitated and one had lost its abdomen — an evidence of a preference 
on the part of the larva for a farinaceous diet. 
I have also numbers of more mature larvae feeding on flour, meal, 
timothy seed, grain, etc. 
During the summer of 1894 the writer obtained a number of samples 
of infested seeds and other products from the museum of this Depart- 
ment, in one of which, consisting of timothy seed, many larvae of 
Attagenus piceus could plainly be seen. The seed was poured into a 
jar and with many others set aside for future observation. About a 
year later, when examined, the upper surface of this jar, which holds 
a little less than a gallon, was fairly covered with the cast skins of the 
larvae. A few dead beetles were found and the peculiar cast skins of 
the last molt which remain about the anal extremity of the pupa could 
be counted by the score. The larvae were in the greatest abundance 
near the surface, no less than thirty-two individuals being taken from a 
half pint of the surface layer and a few were found even at the bottom. 
Too late in the season for experiment with a view to the discovery if 
the larvae would breed ab ovo in the substances in which they occurred, 
living specimens were found in pumpkin seeds and in millet that had 
previously harbored the Indian-meal moth, and many cast larval skins 
in the herb sweet marjoram (Origanum major ana), which had also been 
infested with some lepidopteron. 
Injury to bolting cloth. — While on the subject of herbivorous food 
habits of this species, I take occasion to add a few notes on a new habit 
and consequent new source of damage from it. During June of the 
present year word was received from a miller in Georgetown, D. C, 
that much trouble was being caused at his mill by an insect which 
injured his bolting cloth. This injury was attributed to Tenebroides 
mauritanicus, specimens of which were brought for determination. It 
was said that the insect cut the cloth even when the machinery was in 
operation, and that it had been at work for several years and caused more 
trouble than all the other insects in this mill. The miller was informed 
that the real author of the mischief was probably the larva of Attagenus 
