The deathwatch beetle , Xestobium rufovillosum , is a woodboring beetle. The adult beetle has a length of 7 millimeters (0.28 inches), while the xylophagous larvae have a length of up to 11 mm (0.43 inches).
To attract couples, this woodborer creates a tap or tick sound that can be heard in the rafters of old buildings on a quiet summer night. They are therefore linked to a quiet, sleepless night and named in case (safeguard) kept next to the dying or dead, and with superstitious extensions have seen the death beetle as a sign of the impending death.
The term "death watch" has been applied to other insects, including the Anobium striatum , some called the booklice of the Psocidae family, and the exact name Atrophy divinatoria and Clothilla pulsatoria .
Larvae are very soft, but can penetrate wood, which can be digested using a number of enzymes in the digestive tract, provided that the wood has been decaying fungus before.
Video Deathwatch beetle
In culture
His character as a bad omen was alluded to in the fourth book "Endymion" John Keats: "... in you hear/No sound is so loud as when on curtain let/Pulse-watch-stop stopped." ("Stifled" because the pronounced death has occurred.)
The beetle is referred to in the classic Mark Twain of Tom Sawyer Adventure: "Then the terrible sign of the death clock on the wall at the head of the bed makes Tom shudder - it means that the day someone is numbered."
In 1838 Henry David Thoreau published an essay mentioning the beetle of death. It is possible that this essay affected Edgar Allan Poe's short story in 1843 "The Tell-Tale Heart" and that the protagonist's voice hearing at the end of the story was that there was a beetle knocking inside the wall, not the beating of the victim's heart.
Maps Deathwatch beetle
References
External links
- Deathwatch beetle media in ARKive
- Deadly beetle knocks on wood
- Museumpests.net Death watch beetle factsheet
- Data related to Xestobium rufovillosum on Wikispecies
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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