318 
COLEOPTEEA. 
destructive ; pupation takes place in a cocoon in the tunnel. The 
beetles on emergence couple and lay eggs soon after. 
The family, which is a large 
one, is divided into two, the 
Ptinides , with the antennae in¬ 
serted on the frons, Anobiides 
with the antennae inserted on 
the anterior margin of the eyes. 
Ptinus includes the cosmopolitan 
P. fur , Linn., a museum pest, 
and P. nigerrimmus , Boi. Gibbium 
contains a cosmopolitan species, 
G. scotias, Czen., a small shiny 
brown insect with swollen and 
united elytra, and no wings. It 
is a household pest and is re¬ 
corded (Indian Mus. Notes, I, 
p. 106) as feeding on the outer 
shells of opium cakes ; the larva 
makes a hard whitish cocoon 
of anal secretion ; we have reared 
it from the rubbish found in 
the bottom of a cupboard of papers 
in an office in Dharwar; the insect is 
common in Egypt and the East, 
feeding on all manner of dried animal 
and vegetable matter and is recorded 
from a box of cayenne pepper. 
Of the Anobiides , Anobium is the 
best known, the larvse boring in dry 
wood and furniture, the beetles in the 
tunnels producing the knocking noise 
known in England as the “Death 
Watch.” Anobium (Sitodrepa) panicea, 
Linn., is found attacking books, papers, 
dry wood and similar dried vegetable matter. The beetle and grub are 
both borers, making neat cylindrical tunnels in which they live. The 
r\ 
Fig. 197. - Sitodrepa panicea—larva 
AND IMAGO. 
