Abstract
As a result of detailed observations supplemented by experiments, it can be stated that the actual food of the larvæ of Lyctus spp. (the powder-post beetles) is the starch present in the cells of the wood they infest. This starch is the main reserve substance of the plant, is present in the sap-wood only, and varies in quantity from species to species of tree; these facts explain why it is that Lyctus attacks only certain kinds of timber and then only the sap-wood. The starch also varies in the growing tree from month to month, and is present in greatest abundance in winter, that is, in the felling season for ‘hardwoods’.
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WILSON, S. ‘Powder-Post’ Beetles. Nature 130, 22–23 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130022b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130022b0
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