Tenebroides mauritanicus

Tenebroides mauritanicus, commonly known as the cadelle, is a cosmopolitan and common pest in storehouses and granaries. Adults and larvae feed on grain and grain products, predate upon other insects infesting grain, and bore into wood. They typically pupate in wood cavities that they make. It is one of the longest lived insects that attacks stored grain and is very destructive and easily dispersed. It is also one of the largest (body length 10 mm.).[1]

Tenebroides mauritanicus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Coleoptera
Family:
Trogossitidae
Genus:
Tenebroides
Species:
T. mauritanicus
Binomial name
Tenebroides mauritanicus
Synonyms
  • Carabus bucephalus Herbst, 1784
  • Lucanus dubius Scriba, 1790
  • Lucanus fuscus Preyssler, 1790
  • Tenebroides piceus Dalla Torre, 1879
  • Platycerus striatus Geoffroy, 1785
  • Tenebrio caraboides Linnaeus, 1758
  • Tenebrio mauritanicus L., 1758
  • Tenebroides complanatus Piller & Mitterpacher, 1783
  • Trogosita mauritanica (L. 1758)
  • Trogosita nitidus Horn, 1862

The larva were nicknamed "bargemen" by saylors because they frequently infested ships' biscuits and be noticed when they would crawl out of the biscuits and onto the "barge", a small tub used to hold biscuits on the mess table.[2]

References
  1. Cotton, R.T. (1926). The Cadelle. Washington DC: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Department bulletin No. 1428.
  2. Macdonald, Janet (2014). Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era. Barnsley, S. Yorkshire: Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1848327474.

See also Home stored product entomology


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.