1928] 
The Destructive Mexican Book Beetle 
47 
The eggs hatch in 5-6 days (in Brazil) and the young larvae seek 
the paste of the bindings at first, but when they grow stronger, 
they attack the bindings themselves and feed until ready to 
pupate. The larvae then tend to return to the external surface, 
which, in the case of books on library shelves, is the back bindings 
of the volumes. They increase the size of their mines and cover 
them with roofs of excreta and paper. The adults emerge 
through cleanly cut holes, thus the characteristic perforations in 
the backs of books are the exit holes. These perforations may be 
re-entered for the purpose of oviposition, although the act itself 
was never observed. De Faria adds that these beetles are noc- 
turnal in habit in that, in hot weather, they may issue from the 
books at night and go to the windows of the room containing the 
library. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the breeding season seems to be 
from October to December but during these months all stages 
of Catorama may be observed. The observations made in Boston 
on the habits of this destructive “book worm” follow. 
Since the beetle is indigenous to the tropics, any life cycle 
in Massachusetts would, without doubt, be different from its 
cycle under tropical conditions, if, indeed, the species could 
persist here. It seems very probable that the fluctuations in 
humidity and especially the temperature changes of the seasons, 
so different from the climate of Hawaii, for example, would 
render impossible continued breeding of the insect in New Eng- 
land. A life cycle of insects raised in a greenhouse might be 
indicative if a humid climate of the correct sort could be ap- 
proximated. It is exceedingly interesting, however, that, in 
spite of the time of year, an appreciable number of Catorama 
larvae survived the conditions of transportation from Honolulu 
to Boston and that, since their arrival in early December, 1927, 
at room temperatures of from 40 to 65 deg. F., both in the book 
store and in the laboratory, they have shown no abatement of 
activity. 
From this fact, there arises at once the serious possibility of 
the destruction of books in libraries which are heated in winter, 
should this insect be introduced. It seems improbable that 
books kept in well lit situations and in active circulation would 
be infested, nor does modern paper appear to be the ideal diet of 
