This is actually a member of the
same family as that of the furniture beetle and tobacco beetle
and that is Anobiidae. This has as it's members The furniture
beetle and the the cigarette beetle plus a few others. To distinguish
between the furniture beetle (otherwise known as woodworm)
and the biscuit beetle is quite difficult, this is why I am
mentioning woodworm on the stored product page. If you refer
to the picture below, you will see that the main differences
are the 'monks cowl' which covers the head of the insect.
The biscuit beetle has become adapted to a diet of starch-containing
foods, and the round exit holes made by the larvae of this
insect are exactly like the holes in timber made by the furniture
beetle. The species has become distributed to all parts of
the world. In fact, these beetles must have been spread by
ships in former times, and the old habit of banging the ship's
biscuits on the table before eating them perhaps served to
drive out the beetle larvae.
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