1928 ] 
The Destructive Mexican Book Beetle 
45 
of cleanly cut, circular holes, 1.5 to 2.3 mm. and oblique, 
larger holes, all of which extended from part way to all the way 
through the book. The work was confined to the covers in many 
other cases and cleanly cut, circular holes of about 2.3 mm. were 
very common in the backs. It was significant that old volumes 
with hand-made paper had their pages well perforated, while 
in recent books with clay-filled, chemical-laden paper, the 
injury was restricted to the binding. Also of significance, was 
the fact that some of the books, which were damp and marked 
by a brown mold, were comparatively immune to severe damage. 
The galleries in the covers were irregular, often appeared to 
radiate from a common center, and, in general, resembled to 
some extent, Scolytid work in wood. There was remarkably 
little frass and the insects which caused the destruction were 
not readily visible. Indeed, this latter point was a mystifying 
feature of the problem. Dr. Brigham had had the reputation 
of taking excellent care of his library and the condition of his 
books was well rated in collectors’ lists. Since, by this presump- 
tion, the extensive damage had occurred in the two to three 
years the boxes had been in storage and in transit, there should 
have been ample insect remains. To the contrary, there was 
an almost complete absence of these and a great scarcity of living 
larvae and adults. The probable solution of this, however, was 
found and will be mentioned later. It should be evident from 
the foregoing that these book injuries were much more con- 
siderable than might be expected of any common book insect, 
of which there are, relatively, but a few known. 
A preliminary search for the cause of this destruction, after 
an examination of at least fifty books, at length yielded three 
living larvae and the intact bodies of two adult beetles, either 
dormant or dead. Mr. C. A. Frost kindly identified the coleop- 
teron as a species of Catorama, family Anobiidae. A review of 
the literature inspired the conclusion that this insect was, very 
probably, either Catorama mexicana or C. herbarium, and, at the 
same time, raised the interesting question, whether or not these 
two species might not be synonymous. 
Catorama (or Cathorama) herbarium, in the literature, is 
