#352 - Drugstore Beetle
photo by Kamran
Another ID for work - Stegobium paniceum, also known as the Bread beetle (hence the scientific name) or Biscuit beetle.
Unusually for stored food pest beetle, not a Dermestid. It's an Anobiid beetle, related to the Deathwatch Beetle and Common Furniture Beetle. Somewhat notorious for its wide diet, including buckets of soap, and the ability of its larvae to chew through plastic and soft metal.
The drugstore beetle attacks such a wide variety of foods and material that one anonymous quote states that it "eats anything but cast iron." It gets its name from its habit of feeding on prescription drugs. It also feeds on flours, dry mixes, breads, cookies, chocolates and other sweets, and spices. Non-food material includes wool, hair, leather, horn, and museum specimens. It is found in pigeon nests and is known to bore into books, wooden objects, and, in some cases, tin or aluminum foil and lead sheets. Larval feeding accounts for the greatest amount of damage. Museum and herbarium specimens are vulnerable to attack. Slight damage and contamination can ruin these valuable and priceless items. Drugstore beetles harbor symbiotic yeasts that produce B vitamins. The yeasts are deposited on the eggs as they pass through the oviduct and are consumed by the larvae during egg hatch. These yeasts enable the drugstore beetle to feed and survive on many foods and other items of poor nutritional quality.