Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses Page: 21

TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 21

breeding cycle, i. e., most of them
after opening the minute globular
capsule showed a small live and
curved larva. In others the ma-
turing larva beetles could be seen,
the larval state being in appear-
ance identically the same as photo-
graphed in Figs. 2 and 3. On
closer inspection of Fig. 4 several
of the whitish larvae of this beetle
are seen, for instance at the places
marked 1, and also two of the ma-
ture tobacco beetles, (center right
rear). Some of these larvae were
quite disfigured in general ap-
pearance from the fine orris root
powder adhering to their fine

F'g. 4.
Cocoons of the Tobacco t3eetl with Iarvae
Partly or Entirely Encapsulated.
hairy filaments. In a few artifi-
cially opened cocoons the larva is
seen quite plainly in the illustra-
tion.
It is an interesting fact, also
stated by Mr. Lucas, that these
tobacco beetles prefer the best
brand of tobacco and the more so
as they are occasionally found in
tobacco which had been sealed air-
tigrht in tin or wooden boxes and
therefore the probability presents

itself that these pests had been
conveyed through tobacco goods
in the tobacco factories before be-
ing put on the market, it being
very difficult to detect the minute
ova. IHow these beetles develop in
all sorts of tobacco is seen, as a
second example, in the so-called
plug tobacco, Fig. 2 (1), which
I also procured from the druggist.
I prepared the view with an ob-
jective lens applied to the camera,
showing the tobacco larvae about
one-half times magnified, also the
second figure of the same photo-
graph, showing some of the larvae
of the drug store beetle and the
tobacco insect and also the ap-
pearance and size (about one-half
larger of the tobacco and the
drug beetle (the latter being more
slender).
In further experimenting with
this matter, I succeeded in pre-
paring the view, (Fig.3,) using an
extra strong lens to the
camera at quite near focus, show-
ing six of the tobacco larvae, two
full-grown tobacco beetles and
one drug store beetle (the lowest
one in the photograph) magnified
considerably.
The third illustration in Fig. 2
shows the closely allied drug store
beetle, named because of its pref-
erance of invading drug store
goods and infesting precisely in
the same manner as the tobacco
beetle. This view shows the
beetles in very slightly less than
normal size. This drug store
beetle is more slenderly built than
the tobacco beetle, but otherwise
is of a similar, reddish brown
color and very active in its move-
ments. Both the tobacco and drug
store beetle, it seems, undergo
about one and the same cycle of
development and when the ova
are deposited in favorable media
of a powdered nature, such as rhu-
barb, orris root, slippery elm, lin-
seed meal, tobacco or cayenne
pepper, the ovum transforming
into the larval state is encysted