Common furniture beetle

Description

A dark brown to black beetle, Anobium punctatum, commonly found in well aged furniture, sculpture and other wooden objects. The adult insects are 3 to 9 mm long and have a life span of 1 year. In some cases, they may live 2 or 3 years. The larvae develop well in conditions with high relative humidity and moderate temperatures. Furniture beetles produce winding and circular tunnels with circular emergence holes. Stegobinone has been identified as the sex pheromone for these wood-feeding anobiids.

Images

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  Furniture beetle damage

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  Furniture beetle damage

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  Furniture beetle damage

Resources and Citations

• MuseumPest.net at Link

• Hermann Kuhn, Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art and Antiquities, Butterworths, London, 1986

• G.Caneva, M.P.Nugari, O.Salvadori, Biology in the Conservation of Works of Art, ICCROM, Rome, 1991

• Univ. of Florida, Dept. of Entomology at http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/urban/stored/drugstore_beetle.htm - for information on stegobinone.