AN INSECT MISTAKEN FOR A TERMITE 
Insects are often suspected of being termites because they are found in wood 
or are found swarming about the house during the spring of the year, which 
is the usual swarming time for termites. Powder-post beetles, fig. 14, cause 
considerable damage to wood, fig. 15. They make small, round holes from 
the interior to the surface of the wood, each hole representing an emergence 
opening made by an adult beetle. The female beetle deposits her eggs in the 
exposed wood pores; the larvae tunnel through the wood, reducing it to a 
powder. Often small piles of powdered wood are found on the surface of 
hardwood floors or beneath timbers infested with powder-post beetles. Sub- 
terranean termites, do not make such holes or piles of sawdust, and the galleries 
of subterranean termites never contain wood powder. 


: x ae 3 
2 ARR ORR tee Aras NRE RE RRR NN CORRNRE 
Lyctus cavicolis Le Conte. 

Fig. 15—Views of the outside [left] and inside fright) of a“timber heavily damaged by powder- 
post beetles. Unlike these beetles, termites never fill their galleries with -finely powdered 
wood; nor do they make numerous round exit holes to the surface of the wood. 
centinued en back cover 
16 
