ALIVE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 519, 28 May 1909, Page 8

ALIVE.

TEOTOLE IN "A" 'SHED.. - Hiirdly as welcome as tho flowers in spring is the army of hairy, many-legged insects, about half an inch in length, which have invaded t, A ,> shed • tho Qucen'S' "Wharf during' tho last few days. The.y ' are sup■posed to- liavo arrived with a consignment pf broken skins, bones, horns, etc., from cer-tain-meat "works up tho line a,fpw,days ago. and,' from the bales, they have spread all over.tho . shed, acrosß the ceiling, ,into th« bales of .hemp, 'tho Customs .room, and all over the 'floors, until tlio. storeman in chargesays that ho has fairly'got the "croeps." The visitation, is.quite unique in tho memory of old wharf hands,' and as nobody seemed to know precisely .what the strangers wore, experts, from tho biological branch of the Agricultural Department were called in to "classify.".: They proved nuito . equal to the task.. ,The'inseots are tho larvae, of what, are known as bacon beetles, and are members of the family which takes the generic namo. of dermestidae. ''This," says W. W. Froggatt, in his work, ''is. a. well-known groujp, for tho.hairy larvae do a great deal .of mischief to sheepskins by gnawing holes in them when thoy aro piled on each other';'getting into bacon and other animal foods,'and even • gnawing holes in bones; The beetles, liavo somewhat short antennae, clubbed at the tins; five jointed, tarsi; tho_, coxao of the fprelcß aro conical; the hind ones, cylindrical.!' I ■■■'•' ' . • ' Tlio Department secured specimens,' and have confined them in'a glass breeding-bos I bedded with peat for observation purposes. i As exemplifying their boring powers it was , discovered, not long after'their confinement, . that tlioy- crawled up to tho lid of tho. box I and bored i their way in 1 three .places an „ eighth of an. inch into tho small cork used to stop up an air-hole. The Department has offered to fumigate tho shed, and this conrsa ; will doubtless be adopted. 'In-tho meantimo "A" shed,is fairly alive with them.