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Show Lf How the Death-Watch Beetle Gets Fat On Sawdust IM?) AWDUST does not seem an attractive diet, LS but that's what the g-rub of the death-watch J- beetle lives on very unfortunately, as its ?f' depredations probably amount to millions of v(rS ut JLlst sawdust won't do it seems to N-M. prefer to get its food from the rafters of old buildings. And when it can get fine old walnut "A A' or mahogany, it won't look at pine or deal. ( A-Mf How does it manage to digest such tough food? -V. This has long buvn a puzzle; but recent re-Ci'1' re-Ci'1' searches prove that it has entered into partner- jvJ:' ship with a kind of fungus which lives in its in- i it- tcrior. This fungus acts upon the wood dust, r fermenting it and turning it into a form of sugar. jrHJ' This leads to a hope that the grub will some yy day pay for the damage it has done. Scientists are beginning to wonder if it will not be possible to make commercial use of this ferment. Another creature which lives upon similar food is the termite, sometimes called the white ant, though really it is not an ant at all. One variety of these tropical insects lives almost al-most entirely upon wood. It will come up through a wooden floor into the leg of a table, then hollow out the table until the whole piece of furniture falls to ruin. It is also fond of paper, and will dispose of a library of books. The termite has adopted the same plan as the death-watch grub. In its gullet it keeps a ferment fer-ment which reduces the dry-as-dust food to a form of nourishment. Another pest, the clothes moth grub, which flourishes on a diet of pure wool, alo depends upon a partner reducing the fibres to food. |
