Lasioderma serricorne

Geographic Range

Cigarette beetles are found worldwide, everywhere that stored tobacco is found. They thrive in temperatures above 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The beetle spread widely as it was transported in packaged tobacco or other packaged products. It is believed that the cigarette beetle originated in Egypt because their carcasses have been found in Egyptian tombs.

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic nearctic
  • introduced introduced
• palearctic palearctic
  • introduced introduced
• oriental oriental
  • introduced introduced
• ethiopian ethiopian
  • native native
• neotropical neotropical
  • introduced introduced
• australian australian
  • introduced introduced
• oceanic islands oceanic islands
  • introduced introduced

• Other Geographic Terms
• cosmopolitan cosmopolitan

Habitat

The habitat of cigarette beetles is difficult to define because they can be found anywhere that there are stored food products to eat. The only requirements that it needs for life are warm temperatures and some humidity. Elevation and proximity to water are apparently unimportant to this species.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate temperate
• tropical tropical
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Other Habitat Features
• urban urban
• suburban suburban
• agricultural agricultural

Physical Description

Adult cigarette beetles are small, reddish-yellow or brownish-red oval shaped beetles. They appear hunched when viewed from the side due to the angle of their head, which is bent downwards almost perpendicular to the thorax. Their wing covers are smooth and unstriated. Adult cigarette beetles are often confused with drugstore beetles , which have striated wing covers and are longer and thinner than drugstore beetles. Cigarette beetle larvae are off-white, grub-shaped, covered with long yellowish-brown hairs, and have three pairs of legs and a brown head. When fully grown, both adults and larvae are 2 to 3 mm long. Adults weigh 0.0016 to 0.0044 g.

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic ectothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

Development

Cigarette beetles begin life as eggs laid directly onto dried, stored foods. These eggs are pearly white and have many spines on the end from which the larvae emerge 6 to 8 days later. Larvae are creamy white in color and covered in fine, light brown hairs. Larvae are mobile, burrowing into loosely packed stored foods which they feed on until they are fully grown. The larvae then enter the pupal stage, building a cocoon in which they undergo metamorphosis. They emerge 4 to 12 days later as sexually mature adults. The adult females are able to oviposit after one day of emergence. This whole cycle is generally completed in 26 to 33 days.

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis metamorphosis

Reproduction

Cigarette beetles are polygynandrous organisms that reach sexual maturity during the pupal stage of development. In 10 to 12 hours after a female cigarette beetle emerges from its cocoon, it begins producing sex pheromones from a specialized pore on the second segment on its abdomen. This pheromone is highly attractive to male cigarette beetles. When a male beetle nears the source of the pheromones, is lowers its head, vibrates its antennae, and walks circles around the source. The male cigarette beetle then touches his antennae to the dorsal surface of the female and grasps her elytra. He then inserts his aedeagus (male reproductive organ) into the female's vagina. Once the beetles are connected, they remain connected, "end-to-end" position for 53 to 67 minutes to allow for sperm transfer. Length of copulation period is unaffected by temperature. Females normally mate with two males, whereas males normally mate at least 6 times.

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous) polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Cigarette beetles emerge from their cocoons, an average of 4 weeks after birth, as fully developed, sexually mature adults. A female beetle is able to oviposit within one day of emergence. After fertilization, the female beetle looks for dry packaged food materials on which to oviposit. Female beetles most often lay their eggs on food products, which also produce the highest number of successful offspring. After the female deposits the eggs, she releases a pheromone that marks the spot so other beetles do not oviposit in the same place. Each female produces an average of 5.2 eggs which gestate for 6 to 8 days before the larvae emerge.

• Key Reproductive Features
• semelparous semelparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• fertilization fertilization
  • internal internal
• oviparous oviparous

The female cigarette beetle yolks and protects her eggs inside her body until she lays them.

• Parental Investment
• female parental care female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

The lifespan of cigarette beetles in captivity is 26 days to 1 year, with an expected lifespan of 44 days. The optimal conditions for growth and development are between 30 and 37 degrees Celsius and 70 to 75% relative humidity. A constant temperature of greater than 40 degrees Celsius or less than -18 degrees Celsius is fatal to all stages of life and low humidity significantly shortens their lifespan. Larvae who eat more generally live to become larger, longer-living adults. Beetles raised on wheat flour have the highest body size and fecundity, laying an average of 10 times more eggs than beetles living on cigar tobacco.

Behavior

Cigarette beetles are active both day and night, but rarely venture from their home in dried goods during the dry heat of the day. The adults are strong fliers and can fly to new food stores. Individuals cannot go too far because adults only live 23 to 28 days. They are most active in temperatures around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• flies
• crepuscular crepuscular
• motile motile
• sedentary sedentary
• colonial colonial

Home Range

Cigarette beetles rarely leave the food store that they were born in, but if the store is depleted, they can fly to a nearby food store and colonize it.

Communication and Perception

Cigarette beetles use their senses of touch, sight (minimally), and chemical receptors to perceive their environment and communicate with other beetles. The most common form of communication between beetles is through the use of pheromones, which they use to attract mates and deter oviposition near an existing oviposition site.

• Communication Channels
• chemical chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones pheromones

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

Cigarette beetles are best known for their infestations of dried tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars, however, they eat many types of stored products including raisins, figs, dates, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, chili powder, curry powder, cayenne pepper, paprika, yeast, drugs, legume seeds, barley, cornmeal, flour, soybean meal, sunflower meal, wheat, wheat bran, rice meal, beans, cereals, fish meal, peanuts, dry yeast, dried flowers, leather, woolen cloth, bamboo, and sometimes, the remains of dead insects.

• Primary Diet
• herbivore herbivore
  • folivore folivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit
• flowers

Predation

Cigarette beetles are prey to many mites and beetles. Mite predators include Chortoglyphrrgs raciiipes , Pediculoides uentricosus , Seiulus , Acaropsis docro , Acaropsis solers , Cheyletus erudirus , and Tyrophagus putrescentiae . They are also eaten by feather legged orb weavers ( Uloborus geniculatus ), red flour beetles ( Tribolium castaneum ), cadelle beetles ( Tenebroides mauritanicus ), and clerid beetles ( Thaneroclerus buqueti ).

Ecosystem Roles

Cigarette beetles feed solely on stored plant material and some carcasses of other insects found within their food source. There are some insects that prey on cigarette beetles like wasps ( Anisopteromalus calandrae ) and mites, ( Moniezella angusta ) which feed on the larvae of the cigarette beetle. If not living within human food stores, cigarette beetles may live in and eat dead plant matter.

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

There are no known positive effects of Lasioderma serricorne on humans.

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

Cigarette beetles feed on stored food products, contaminating them with excrement and dead bodies which can destroy entire stores of food. In 1950 and 1968, it is estimated that 0.7% of stored, unprocessed tobacco was destroyed by cigarette beetles in the U.S. Recently, cigarette beetles have begun infesting stored museum collections, using a newly developed biodegradable packing peanut as its food source.

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Conservation Status

Cigarette beetles are not threatened or endangered, and researchers actually study how to decrease their population as they are pests to humans. This is because the cigarette beetle causes damage to stored food products throughout the world.

Other Comments

Polypropylene packaging is most effective in stopping cigarette beetle infestations. Also, increases in thickness of the packaging decreases pest permeability in all packaging materials.

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

BioKIDS Critter Catalog

Contributors

Nicholas Brigham (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Catherine Kent (editor), Special Projects.

References

Aiello, A., E. Dominguez Nunez, H. Stockwell. 2010. NOTHING IS PERFECT: BIODEGRADABLE PACKING MATERIAL AS FOOD AND TRANSPORTATION FOR A MUSEUM PEST, LASIODERMA SERRICORNE (F.) (COLEOPTERA: ANOBIIDAE). COLEOPTERISTS BULLETIN , 64/3: 256-257.

Allahvaisi, S., A. Pourmirza, M. Safaralizade. 2009. Packaging of Agricultural Products for Preventing Tobacco Beetles Contaminations. NOTULAE BOTANICAE HORTI AGROBOTANICI CLUJ-NAPOCA , 37/2: 218-222.

Ashworth, J. 1993. THE BIOLOGY OF LASIODERMA-SERRICORNE. JOURNAL OF STORED PRODUCTS RESEARCH , 29/4: 291-303.

Collins, D., S. Conyers. 2010. The effect of sub-zero temperatures on different lifestages of Lasioderma serricorne (F.) and Ephestia elutella (Hubner). JOURNAL OF STORED PRODUCTS RESEARCH , 46/4: 234-241.

Hori, M., M. Miwa, H. Izawa. 2011. Host suitability of various stored food products for the cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (Coleoptera: Anobiidae). APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY , 46/4: 463-469.

Jacobs, S. 1998. "Cigarette Beetle" (On-line). ento.psu.edu. Accessed February 02, 2012 at http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/cigarette-beetle .

Lyon, W. 1991. "Cigarette and Drugstore Beetles" (On-line). ohioonline.osu.edu. Accessed February 02, 2012 at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2083.html .

Mahroof, R., T. Phillips. 2008. Life history parameters of Lasioderma serricorne (F.) as influenced by food sources. JOURNAL OF STORED PRODUCTS RESEARCH , 44/3: 219-226.

Papadopoulou, S. 2006. Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Schrank) (Astigmata : Acaridae) as a new predator of Lasioderma serricorne (F.) (Coleoptera : Anobiidae) in tobacco stores in Greece. JOURNAL OF STORED PRODUCTS RESEARCH , 42/3: 391-394.

Papadopoulou, S. 2006. Observations on the mating behavior of Lasioderma serricorne (F.) adults and experiments on their nutritional requirements in dried tobacco. COLEOPTERISTS BULLETIN , 60/4: 291-296.