''Tenebroides mauritanicus'', commonly known as the cadelle, is a

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

and common pest in storehouses and granaries. Adults and larvae feed on grain and grain products,

prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

upon other insects infesting grain, and bore into wood. They typically pupate in wood cavities that they make. It is one of the longest lived insects that attacks stored grain and is very destructive and easily dispersed. It is also one of the largest (body length 10 mm.). The larvae were nicknamed "bargemen" by sailors because they frequently infested ships' biscuits and were noticed when they would crawl out of the biscuits and onto the "barge", a small tub used to hold biscuits on the mess table.

References

External links

University of Kentucky
Very high quality image. See also

Home stored product entomology Home-stored product entomology is the study of insects which infest foodstuffs stored in the home. It deals with the prevention, detection and eradication of the pests. The five major categories of insects considered in this article are flour beet ...

Tenebrionidae Beetles described in 1758 Cosmopolitan arthropods {{Tenebrionidae-stub