Bookworm (insect)
Encyclopedia
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
which supposedly bores through book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s.
Actual book-borers are uncommon. Both the larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of the death watch beetle
Death watch beetle
The death watch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum, is a woodboring beetle. The adult beetle is long, while the xylophagous larvae are up to long....
(Xestobium rufovillosum) and the common furniture beetle
Common furniture beetle
The common furniture beetle or common house borer is a woodboring beetle. In the larval stage it bores in wood and feeds upon it. Adult Anobium punctatum measure 2.7–4.5 mm in length. They have brown ellipsodial bodies with a pronotum resembling a monk's cowl .-Life cycle:Adults do not...
(Anobium punctatum) will tunnel through wood and paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
if it is nearby the wood.
A major book-feeding insect is the book or paper louse (aka booklouse or paperlouse). A tiny (under 1 mm), soft-bodied wingless Psocoptera
Psocoptera
Psocoptera are an order of insects that are commonly known as booklice, barklice or barkflies. They first appeared in the Permian period, 295–248 million years ago. They are often regarded as the most primitive of the hemipteroids. Their name originates from the Greek word psokos meaning...
(usually Trogium pulsatorium), that actually feeds on microscopic mold
Mold
Molds are fungi that grow in the form of multicellular filaments called hyphae. Molds are not considered to be microbes but microscopic fungi that grow as single cells called yeasts...
s and other organic matter found in ill-maintained works (e.g., cool, damp, dark, and undisturbed areas of archives, libraries, and museums), although they will also attack bindings and other book parts. It is not actually a true louse
Louse
Lice is the common name for over 3,000 species of wingless insects of the order Phthiraptera; three of which are classified as human disease agents...
.
Many other insects, like the silverfish
Silverfish
Lepisma saccharina, frequently called silverfish, fishmoths, carpet sharks or paramites, are small, wingless insects in the order Thysanura...
(Lepisma saccharina) or cockroach
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
(various Blattodea), will consume these molds and also degraded paper or the starch
Starch
Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by all green plants as an energy store...
-based binding pastes – warmth and moisture or high humidity are prerequisites, so damage is more common in the tropics
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
. Modern glues and paper are less attractive to insects.
Two moths, Tineola bisselliella and Hofmannophila pseudospretella
Hofmannophila pseudospretella
The Brown House Moth is a species of the concealer moth family , wherein it belongs to subfamily Oecophorinae. It is the only known member of its genus Hofmannophila, and as is often the case for such monotypic taxa, the genus' distinctness remains to be conclusively proven...
, will attack cloth bindings. Leather-bound books attract various other consumers, such as Dermestes lardarius
Dermestes lardarius
Dermestes lardarius is a species of beetle found in the Palearctic , and the Near East. In Europe, it is known from Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, mainland Denmark, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Kaliningrad,...
and the larvae of Attagenus unicolor and Stegobium paniceum. The bookworm moth (Heliothis zea or H. virescens
Heliothis virescens
The Tobacco Budworm is a moth of the Noctuidae family. It is found in Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil and the Antilles. The wingspan is 28-35 mm....
) and its larvae are not interested in books. The larvae are pests for cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
or tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
growers as the cotton bollworm
Cotton bollworm
Cotton bollworm may refer to:* Helicoverpa zea* Helicoverpa armigera, the American bollworm or tomato grub- See also :* Bollworm...
or tobacco budworm
Helicoverpa armigera
The cotton bollworm, corn earworm or Old World bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, is a moth, the larvae of which feed on a wide range of plants, including many important cultivated crops. It is a major pest in cotton and one of the most polyphagous and cosmopolitan pest species...
.