Xestobium rufovillosum
| Deathwatch beetle | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Family: | Anobiidae |
| Genus: | Xestobium |
| Species: | X. rufovillosum |
| Binomial name | |
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Xestobium rufovillosum (De Geer, 1774) |
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The deathwatch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum, is a woodboring beetle. The adult beetle is 7 millimetres (0.28 in) long, while the xylophagous larvae are up to 11 mm (0.43 in) long.
To attract mates, these woodborers create a tapping or ticking sound that can be heard in the rafters of old buildings on 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 deathwatch beetle 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.
The larva is very soft, yet can bore its way through wood, which it is able to digest using a number of enzymes in its alimentary canal, provided that the wood has experienced prior fungal decay.
Its nature as an ill omen is alluded to in the fourth book of John Keats' "Endymion": "...within ye hear / No sound so loud as when on curtain'd bier / The death-watch tick is stifled." ("Stifled" because the death it was portending has taken place.)
The deathwatch beetle is mentioned in the film Practical Magic, and its characteristic ticking sound serves as the harbinger of death.
The beetle was referenced in the Mark Twain classic,The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; "Next the ghastly ticking of a deathwatch in the wall at the bed’s head made Tom shudder -- it meant that somebody’s days were numbered.".
The beetle is also mentioned in the History Channel series Life After People (season one, episode six), wherein it is shown "eating" the Mona Lisa. The destructive effect of the beetle during National Trust restoration work at Ightham Mote in Kent was highlighted in a special episode of Time Team aired in May 2004.
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Wikipedia