Drugstore beetle, also known as the biscuit beetle (Ward and Humphries, 1977) or bread beetle (Ward, 1981), Stegobium paniceum (Linnaeus, 1758) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae) is distributed throughout the temperate and tropic regions of the world (Abdelghany et al., 2010). It has a complete life cycle (holometabolous: egg, larva, pupa, and adult). Adults are nondescript, brown beetles that are oval in shape and measure a few millimeters in length, while larvae are grub-form in appearance. This insect completes its lifecycle in approximately 20 weeks depending on environmental conditions. Historically, this insect has been considered a pest of stored products as it ‘contaminates’ various materials of human and animal use as food and feed respectively; however, more recent interest has been in the potential development of this insect for mass-production and use as a source of protein for human consumption (Kok, 1983).
References
- Abdelghany, A.Y., Awadalla, S.S., Abdel-Baky, N.F., El-Syrafi, H.A. and Fields, P.G., 2010. Effect of high and low temperatures on the drugstore beetle (Coleoptera: Anobiidae). Journal of Economic Entomology 103: 1909–1914.
- Kok, R., 1983. The production of insects for human food. Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology Journal 16: 5–18.
- Ward, J.P., 1981. Mating behaviour and the mechanism of male orientation in the anobiid bread beetle, Stegobium paniceum. Physiological Entomology 6: 213–217.
- Ward, J.P. and Humphries, D.A., 1977. A secondary sexual character in adult Stegobium paniceum (L.) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae) and its probable function. Journal of Stored Products Research 13: 95–97
Classification
Stegobium paniceum
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Class | Insecta |
| Order | Coleoptera |
| Family | Anobiidae |
| Subfamily | Anobiinae |
| Genus | Stegobium |
| Species | S. paniceum |
| Author citation | (Linnaeus, 1758) |
| Common names | |
| drugstore beetle, bread beetle, biscuit beetle | |