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Bookworm (insect) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bookworm (insect)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bookworm is a popular generalization for any insect which supposedly bores through books. Actual book-borers are uncommon. Both the larvae of the death watch beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum) and the common furniture beetle (Anobium punctatum) will tunnel through wood and paper if it is nearby the wood. A major book-feeding insect is the book or paper louse (aka booklouse damage on Errata. or paperlouse). A tiny (under 1 mm), soft-bodied wingless Psocoptera (usually Trogium pulsatorium), that actually feeds on microscopic molds 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. Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907-1916, Augustine Birrell once recounted a situation in which a bookworm had eaten through to the 87th page of a fifteenth century vellum book. By the twentieth century, chemical book composition thwarted much of the damage done to books by various types of book-boring insects.[1] Many other insects, like the silverfish (Lepisma saccharina) or cockroach (various Blattodea), will consume these molds and also degraded paper or the starch-based binding pastes warmth and moisture or high humidity are prerequisites, so damage is more common in the tropics. Modern glues and paper are less attractive to insects. Two moths, Tineola bisselliella and Hofmannophila pseudospretella, will attack cloth bindings. Leather-bound books attract various other consumers, such as Dermestes lardarius and the larvae of Attagenus unicolor and Stegobium paniceum. The bookworm moth (Heliothis zea or H. virescens) and its larvae are not interested in books. The larvae are pests for cotton or tobacco growers as the cotton bollworm or tobacco budworm.
Pages riddled with bookworm

See also
Booklouse Woodworm

References
1. ^ Murray, Stuart (2009). The Library: An Illustrated History. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing. p. 198.

"John Francis Xavier O'Conor, Facts about bookworms: their history in literature and work in libraries (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1898.) (http://books.google.com/books? id=WE08AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=book+worms&hl=en&ei=kpAGTbXGHoO2sAP4yfz6 Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=book%20wor ms&f=false,) John V. Richardson Jr., Bookworms: The Most Common Insect Pests of Paper in Archives, Libraries, and
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Bookworm (insect) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Museums (http://jvrichardsonjr.net/insects/pests.htm) "Timber Borers - Anobium & Lyctus Borers" (http://www.termite.com.au/borers-pest-control.html) Thomas A Parker "Study on integrated pest management for libraries and archives" - prepared by Thomas A Parker for the General Information Programme and UNISIST (Paris: Unesco, 1988) (http://www.unesco.org/webworld/ramp/html/r8820e/r8820e00.htm#Contents) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bookworm_(insect)&oldid=547861381" Categories: Insects Book terminology This page was last modified on 30 March 2013 at 19:18. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

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