SHORT TAKES : Beetles Have Taste for Books

LONDON — Voracious beetles with a taste for religious works have brought havoc to a collection of some of the rarest books in Britain, London newspapers said today.

The tiny munchers, a species of Australian spider beetle and biscuit beetle, happily burrowed and ate their way through a quarter of 5,000 priceless volumes at a library in Cornwall in southwest England before they were detected.

Staff members of the library at Lanhydrock House believe the beetles were carried in on cut flowers. The tiny creatures then gleefully transferred themselves to the 16th and 17th Century book collection of 17th Century theologian, the Rev. Hannibal Gammon. Not until the staff began spring-cleaning the library did they discover bindings and pages networked with holes.