Stegobium paniceum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Cvetkovska-Gjorgievska, Aleksandra, Dedov, Ivailo, Hristovski, Slavcho, Langourov, Mario, Lazarevska, Stanislava, Prelik, Dana & Simov, Nikolay, 2019, New records of allochtonous, invasive and pest invertebrate species from the Republic of Macedonia, Ecologica Montenegrina 20, pp. 56-70 : 61

Stegobium paniceum (Linnaeus, 1758) - drugstore beetle ( Coleoptera , Anobiidae )

Record: Herbal tea bags, Skopje, numerous larval specimens, July 2016.

Origin: Australia and New Zealand ( Tomov et al. 2009).

Comment: Drugstore beetles have a worldwide distribution, but are more abundant in warmer regions or in heated structures in more temperate climates. The distribution includes Balkan countries: Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria as well ( Tomov et al. 2009). This species is not listed in the DAISIE database.

Stegobium paniceum is also known as bread beetle or biscuit beetle, and it is often confused with the cigarette beetle and the common furniture beetle Anobium punctatum , which belongs to the same family and often attacks similar stored products. It is important pest of various organic materials such as dried herbs, spices, cereals, leather, museum collection etc. and is even known to bore through aluminum, tin and lead sheets. The life cycle of a drugstore beetle is dependent on the temperature (i.e. the lower the temperature the slower the process) and food source.