Abstract
BULLETIN No. 737 of the United States Department of Agriculture, published last March, has for its subject “The Tobacco Beetle: An Important Pest in Tobacco Products,” and on reading what its writer, Mr. G. H. Runner, has to say about the pest, one is almost tempted to believe that the “precious herbe” is fitted for nothing so much as the breeding of maggots. At any rate, Mr. Runner makes it quite clear that tobacco at every stage of its manufacture, from the dried leaf up to the finished product, is a most attractive diet for the grub or larva, and that the conditions under which the leaf is usually manufactured and stored are almost ideal for the development and reproduction of the beetle. What a pity King James did not know all this when he wrote his “Counterblaste,” and was led in irony to exclaim, “O omnipotent power of tobacco! ” But the tobacco beetle, Lasioderma serricorne, was probably altogether unknown in his days, and even now is not at all common in England. It cannot withstand exposure to extreme cold for any great length of time, and thrives best, sometimes reproducing at the unusual rate of three or more generations each year, where a warm, equable temperature, a moist atmosphere, and suitable food for the grub occur together. That is whv it is so much better known in America, especially in the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, than it is in this country. It is well known also in India and the islands of the Far East.
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The Tobacco Beetle . Nature 104, 301 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104301a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104301a0