Death watch beetle

Death watch beetle
	;
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia;
Phylum:	Arthropoda;
Class:	Insecta;
Order:	Coleoptera;
Family:	Anobiidae;
Subfamily:	Ernobiinae;
Genus:	Xestobium;
Species:	X. rufovillosum;
Binomial name
	Xestobium rufovillosum; De Geer, 1774

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The death watch beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum) is a woodboring beetle, namely a beetle whose larvae are xylophagous. The adult is approximately 7 mm long. The larva can be up to 11 mm long.

To attract mates, these woodborers create a tapping or ticking sound that can be heard in old building rafters during quiet summer nights. They are therefore associated with quiet, sleepless nights and are named for the vigil (watch) kept beside the dying or dead, and by extension the superstitious have seen the death watch as an omen of impending death.

The term "death watch" has been applied to a variety of other ticking insects including Anobium striatum, some of the so-called booklice of the family Psocidae, and the appropriately named Atropos divinatoria and Clothilla pulsatoria.

In 1787, antiquarian Francis Grose included the death watch beetle in his three-page inventory of contemporary omens of death ^[1].

The death watch beetle appears in a nativity song in which the innkeeper complains repeatedly that "there's death watch beetle in the roof."

In the story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, the death watch beetle is mentioned simply as "deathwatches" The narrator hears it tapping in the walls while he watches his victim in his bedchamber.^[2]

In Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer the beetle is heard while Tom is waiting in bed for Huck Finn to show up for a night at the graveyard.

In the George Orwell novel A Clergyman's Daughter the death watch beetle is mentioned as the reason for the church's sagging roof: "...beside the Church Expenses box two fragments of riddled beam explained mutely that this was due to that mortal foe of Christendom, the death-watch beetle."

The death watch beetle also appears in Julian Barnes' A History of the World in 10½ Chapters.

It also appeared in Ian Fleming's Thunderball and in Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. In addition, it is featured in Alice Hoffman's novel Practical Magic as well as in its film adaptation.

The Death watch beetle is portrayed in the film version of 'Practical Magic' as physical evidence of a family curse. In one scene, the character Sally desperately searches for the death watch beetle, thinking that if she finds and destroys it, her husband will not die.

The Death watch beetle is spoken of in the History channel documentary series Life After People. One hundred years after people no longer exist, the Mona Lisa is eaten by these beetles because it is painted on wood and a small hole from dust created an opportunity for moisture, forming an ideal habitat for the beetle.

[edit] References

^ Walker (1995). Out of the Ordinary: Folklore & the Supernatural. Logan: Utah State University Press.
^ Reilly, John E. "The Lesser Death-Watch and "'The Tell-Tale Heart'," collected in The American Transcendental Quarterly. Second quarter, 1969. Available online