The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-11-27
1HE SEATTLE PSYCHOLOGISTS SUNDAY =
4 genuine DOOkWORM.
THE RARE AND PRECIOUS GRUB
on VIEW IN NEW YORK.
Found I'm An Old Volume of Dante
Sent 10 the Cornell Library
From Florence - what william

| Harris Arnold Says OF His Prise.
| In the window of Fifth avenue book
| store is shown piece OF glass, near the
| bottom OF which. carefully preserved
| from the air, is little object that looks
like bit of black yarn pressed into an
| irregular semi-circular shape. Ii is only
/ about three-sixteenths of an inch in
| length. but If you should happen to come
| across the mate &c this ignificant-look-
| Ing creature within the pages OF some
| musty old tome. don't flick il away with
| 9 snap OF the finger. For il is genuine
| boring bookworm, a rare and precious
| grub
| The strange little creature now on exhi-
| bition is a specimen Of Sitodrepa Panicea.
| family ptinidae, order Coleoptera. and il
| is the property OF William Harris Arnold,
! OF New York, who has described 1t in
his First Report of Book Collector
1 The specimen was sent to him by j. RI.
, Comstock, professor Of entomology at
Cornell university, who received il With
others from Willard Austin, assistant Ii
| brarian of the university. Mr.. Austin
| thus describes how he made the discov-
cry, which is regarded as being one OF
! the best authenticated instances on rec
| ord:
ut was on the Eth of May. 1898. that
took from the shelf volume OF Dante's
I
ence by Willard Ffske as a part of the
Dante collection which Tor some years he
had been gathering. The volume had
| been received by mail few days pre-
yiously. The cover was worn by time
more than haa by use and was riddl s,ds with IN
remains OF worms which had had their
day and ceased to be- together with the
larvae OF several that were alive. The
title page was pierced with eight holes.
| which extended through only few
leaves. In the back hinge We're found
some more remains and some live larvae.
The holes which pierced through the back
leaves numbered twenty, and went deeper
than those in front. Knowing the ento-
mologist department. desired all such I'M
usual specimens, took them there. to-
gether with the volume The cover was
removed and the volume returned to the
library"
Prof. Comstock examined the cover with
great care and found that it contained
many specimens, and IL was placed in
allowed to develop considerable num-
Der OF beetles matured and left the COW
ers ard certain Of the larvae were sent
by mail 10 MIR. Arnold. Now. Mr.. Arnold
is not merely a well-known book collector,
he is a business man also, and he deter
mined so TO treat some OF his specimens
that accurate scientific study of them
gould be made. Pictures of bookworms
have been drawn and engraved more than
once, but Mr.. Arnold Is the first person to
reproduce a bookworm by Photographic
process. He made collotypes of one OF
the Cornell specimens, natural size, and
also magnifed thirty-six diametcrs. In
fact. the glass plate upon which Is shown
the bookworm, exhibited uptown, is one
OF the negatives he made. and close tn
spection of the glass far above natural
size reveals the enlarged likeness-a
vague, shadowy mass. the outer edge
forming semi-cirele. having indenta-
tons here and there: Protecting from the
countless hairy particles: Unless the OBJ
server is thoroughly informed upon the
subject, 1t would be almost impossible for
him TO determine at which end is the
creatures head. And yet the genuine
bookworm is armed with powerfully con-
structed jaws and strong muscles. and
easily eats its way not merely through
the closed leaves of a book. but through
the cover be IL paper. cloth or leather
abound in certain localities, Yet the dis
covery of any in book Is matter OF
great rarity.
specific insect known as the bookworm,'
yet some of the many species of insects
which sporadieally. feed on books may
properly be termed "bookworms." One
species OF moth--possibly more than one
and several species OF tiny beetles in the
larval stage of their existence. bore their
way into books, leaving smooth-cut,
round holes, which externally look like
| shot holes.
Usually the holes penetrate only part
times they extend quite through from
cover to cover. 1t should be particularly
| noted that only larvae, and never images,
bore round holes into books, and more
over, that the possession OF this boring
power and the exercise of II In books
class certain species of insects as book
worms. and distinguish them as such
from various other insect species that In
fest books. As bookworm larvae are not
capable OF quick progression, they must
| begin life near the food that is TO sustain
them. In fact, owing to the rctundty Of
their bodies and the weakness OF their
legs, they can scarcely walk on n smooth.
fat surface. IT is most probable. there
fore that the iarva which bores its way
into a book has emerged from an egg de-
posted by the mother on or near the
| book"
A brown grub was lately found alive in
book taken from the Flushing QA ID
looked as If they had been nibbled, and
| the finder gave the grub 10 r. d. North.
| q well-known bookman. who kept II In q
| box on his desk to show 10 persons inter-
| eSted. Some time afterward he gave II
! To Francis Wilson, book collector and
| actor, who. went from Mr.. North to the
| he Winnie Press, IN Lafayette place.
where he saw Mr. Hopkins. who happen
| ed TO remark that he wished he could get
| a bookworrn for his friend Mr.. Arnold.
| We'll" said Wilson, 81 sometimes have
| a worm myself and pulled from his
| pocket the Flushing insect. The insect
| was sent to Mr. Arnold. who. to satisfy
| a lingering doubt. submitted u TO Prof.
| William Bcnteumuller, of the New YORK
| Museum of Natural History. The profess
| sor looked at il through magnifying
| glass and pronounced Ii to be not a book
| worm at ALL but the larva of a species
| ~ dermestid beetles.-New York CONNER
| ciaL Advertiser.
|