| DESCRIPTION |
 |
Common pest of home and storehouse. Distributed worldwide. Latin name
paniceum - because it feeds on bread. Females deposit eggs singly;
larval period 4-5 months; pupal stage 12-18 days; life cycle spans 7 months
Food: Reputed to "eat anything except cast iron"; can survive on strychnine,
arsenic, etc.; will infest books, manuscrips, mummies. In World War I - it
became so serious a pest of breads that troops were ordered to eat their
bread only in the dark Adult: Cylindrical, 2.5 mm, uniform brown in color,
head not visible from above, legs and antennae remain pressed to the body
when at rest, similar in appearance to the cigarette beetles, distinguished
by the presence of rows of deep pits on wing covers, and by having 3 terminal
antennal segments elongate; cigarette beetles has serrated antennae.