5o8 
Insects  Destructive  to  Books. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. 
\   Noveiul.cr,  1911. 
moving  to  the  new  quarters  they  are  comparatively  Httle  troubled 
by  pests.  From  an  examination  of  samples  of  books  I  have  received 
from  him,  I  wonder  how  anyone  was  able  to  read  the  books  with 
any  degree  of  satisfaction,  as  many  had  hundreds  of  tunnels  running 
through  them,  some  had  large  cavities  eaten  in  them,  and  others 
looked  as  though  a  mischievous  boy  had  taken  a  pair  of  scissors  and 
tried  to  see  how  many  strips  he  could  cut  each  leaf  into ;  in  others 
the  cloth  binding  was  almost  entirely  eaten  off,  exposing  the  galler- 
ies made  by  the  beetles  in  the  cardboard  covers.  (Illustrations 
Nos.  I  and  2.) 
Books  will  also  be  found  to  have  forms  of  life  living  upon  them 
which  at  present  cause  much  speculation  as  to  what  substance  they 
feed  upon,  and  the  insects  commonly  known  as  book-lice,  belonging 
Fig.  2 
Volume  from  the  Hawiian  Islands.    The  cloth  cover  is  almost  entirely  eaten,  exposing  In  the 
strawboard  the  tunnels  of  Catorama  Mexicana,  a  species  of  Colecpiera. 
to  the  family  Psocides  of  the  order  Corrodentia,  are  examples.  In 
turning  over  the  pages  of  books  or  looking  over  papers  which  have 
been  kept  in  a  dark  location  for  a  long  while,  one  with  a  keen 
eyesight  will  often  see  little  specks  of  life  run  tO'  a  crevice  to  hide  or 
get  away  from  the  rays  of  light.  On  account  of  their  whitish  gray 
color  and  an  ability  to  run  with  a  speed  which  is  amazing  when  the 
