Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
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Anobium
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Furniture Beetle (Anobium punctatum)
Species
Anobium punctatum
- Furniture Beetle
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia (Animals)
Phylum
Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum
Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class
Insecta (Insects)
Order
Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder
Polyphaga
Superfamily
Bostrichoidea
Family
Ptinidae (Death-watch and Spider Beetles)
Subfamily
Anobiinae (Death-watch Beetles)
Tribe
Anobiini
Genus
Anobium
Species
punctatum
(Furniture Beetle)
Other Common Names
Common House Borer
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Anobium punctatum
(De Geer)
Orig. Comb:
Ptinus punctatus
De Geer 1774
Size
2.5–6 mm; adults produced in dry environments are generally small
(
1
)
Identification
meso- and metasternum deeply excavated: image
here
Range
cosmopolitan
(
2
)
, native to the Palaearctic, adventive and widespread in NA
(
3
)
, especially along coastal regions where air humidity is high
(
1
)
Food
many hard- and softwoods
(
3
)
Life Cycle
Eggs are laid in slits, cracks, or crevices in the wood surface. The life cycle is 1-3 years.
(
4
)
Remarks
damages structural wood rather than furniture; it enters houses in infested furniture and spreads to exposed, unfinished wood
(
1
)
earliest record in our area: NJ 1865
(
5
)
Works Cited
1.
Handbook of urban insects and arachnids: A handbook of urban entomology
Robinson W.H. 2005. Cambridge University Press.
2.
Death-watch and spider beetles of Wisconsin—Coleoptera: Ptinidae
Arango, R.A. and D.K. Young. 2012. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-209. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory.
3.
American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
4.
Eastern Forest Insects
Whiteford L. Baker. 1972. U.S. Department of Agriculture · Forest Service.
5.
The Derodontidae, Dermestidae, Bostrichidae, and Anobiidae of the Maritime Provinces of Canada (Coleoptera: Bostrichiformia)
C.J. Majka. 2007. Zootaxa 1573: 1–38.
Contributed by
v belov
on 15 July, 2010 - 3:30am
Additional contributions by
Beatriz Moisset
,
Mike Quinn
,
Marci Hess
Last updated 19 July, 2023 - 3:29pm