Analele Ştiinţifice ale Universităţii “Al.I. Cuza” Iaşi, s. Biologie animală, Tom LI, 2005

DAMAGES PRODUCED BY PTINIDAE ON THE BOOKS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HERITAGE

BY

GEORGIANA GĂMĂLIE1, MARIANA MUSTAŢĂ1

Key words: ecclesiastical heritage, pests, Ptinidae, conservation

Aspects on the deterioration caused by several species of Ptinidae (Coleoptera) on the old book deposit of the Agapia Monastery (Neamţ county) and in the Saint Nicholas Church Museum of Braşov are presented. The attack of 4 species belonging to 2 genera of the Ptinidae family has been noticed. The paper presents the attack type of the aforementioned species, some of the damages they caused, and provides recommendations on how to prevent the attacks and preserve the books.

Introduction The old-century ecclesiastical book, either hand-written or printed, carefully preserved nowadays in conventual archives and museums, represents a valuable witness of our past, of the Christian faith and history of the Romanian people. Apart from their liturgical function, the ecclesiastical books have been the first primer for the peasants' children, alongwith their utilization as archives on which the main events occurring in the life of a community had been recorded. A genuine thesaurus of ideas, the book is equally a material object, while the various stuffs entering its composition constitute the physico-chemical support of a trophic chain made up of numerous species which attack it in successive waves. Insects - which find in the old precious objects of cult both shelter and food - are the second most dangerous enemy of theirs, following only the human intervention. The abiotic factors (temperature - T, relative humidity - RH, light) develop their continuous actions upon objects, thus inducing further intervention of the biotic element. Insects are being attracted by the various materials forming the book, consuming them in a preferential manner, and causing deteriorations of different types, as both to their aspect and importance. Coleopterans belong to the most dangerous category of books' enemies, their attack developing as a function of their food preferences. Thus, Ptinidae cause serious damages, representing the second attacking group, after Anobiidae.

______1 „Al.I. Cuza” University of Iasi

Georgiana Gămălie and Mariana Mustaţă

The museum of the Saint Nicholas Church of Şcheii Braşovului and the book deposit of the Agapia Monastery shelter valuable volumes, illustrative for the history of printing in România and, even more important, testifying the historical existence of the Romanian people as an old Christian community. The importance of such goods and the special care with which one has to preserve them goes therefore without saying. The amplitude of insects' attack and, implicitly, the extent of deterioration they induce on books require a many-sided - biological, ecological, etiological and morphological - study of the species involved, for an efficient combat of theirs, along with granting optimum storage conditions by a strict surveillance of the microclimatic parameters.

Materials and method Our investigations have been developed on the old book fund of the museum of the Saint Nicholas Church of Şcheii Braşovului, and in the book store of the Agapia Monastery. In the first deposit, including more than 2,700 volumes, the rooms are not heated during the cold seasons, which means very low temperature values, inversely proportional to the values of RH. Consequently, favorable conditions for the development of mold and also of ptinids are created. The books are kept on metallic shelves, in horizontal position, each one being protected by a paper cover. In spite of the fact that, when brought in the deposit, the books had been treated against biological agents, their unsuitable keeping favourized the propagation of pests. The active presence of some dangerous insects is demonstrated, besides the numerous adults and dead larvae, by larval exuviae or by the galleries full of sawdust, present inside the volumes, and by the orifices visible on the books'covers. Dead adults found on shelves or on the windows' frame support constitute additional proofs. In the old book deposit of the Agapia Monastery, the volumes are preserved on woody shelves, wrapped in linen, for preventing the accumulation of dust. Unfortunately, the microclimate conditions, similar to those of the first station under study, favourize, too, the development of ptinids. The books have been selected according to age, source and area of the deposit in which they are kept, once known that the microclimatic conditions may vary in one and the same space. The books have been turned over page by page, their bindings and covers being also checked. The biological samples have been collected in glass tubes temporarily labelled with data on the place of their taking over (the number under which the books is to be found in the catalogue of the collection, as well as the part of the book in which they had been found, the attacked substrate, especially). The material thus obtained has been analyzed in the laboratory by means of dissections, preparations in “Canada balsam”, images on electronic and optical microscopes, and binocular magnifying glasses, for the determination of the attacking species through morphological aspects. Also, for the elucidation of certain biological and ecological aspects, the living insects found have been rear in the laboratory.

32 Damages produced by Ptinidae on the books of the ecclesiastical heritage

Results and discussion The investigations performed permitted the identification of 4 species, belonging to 2 genera of the Ptinidae family (Table 1). The Ptinidae family includes about 500 known species, 24 of which have been shown as dangerous to the deposited materials. In nature, such insects are frequently met in the nests of both vertebrates and invertebrates, birds' nests representing a possible source of infestation for museum’s collections. The sinatropic tendency of some species has to be considered, as important economic aspects might be here involved. The adults of this family are small-sized (2-4 mm), the shape of their body following two morphological tendencies: globular or elongated. Within the same species, such forms represent a characteristic of sexual dimorphism (in males they are parallel, while in females - oval), which is the case of the three species belonging to the Ptinus genus under analysis in the present study, although there exist also species in which both sexes have the same shape, for example, Niptus hololeucus. The antennae - filiform, almost equal in length with the fore feet – along with the globular shape of the body make them highly similar to spiders, which explains, too, the name of the species: Niptus hololeucus, i.e., the Golden Spider Beetle. The structure of the pronotum is characteristic to the species, i.e., either simple - as in the case of Niptus hololeucus - or evidencing a pattern resulting from the arrangement of the hairs of different sizes, of pronotum's depressions as such, or of its granulations. The adornment of the elytra offers, too, possible clues as to the species involved. In the three Ptinus species under study, besides hairs of different length present on striations and interstriations, each elytron evidences two parallel bands formed of wider hairs, occurring as white scales, in the humeral region and in the posterior half. As a function of both sex and species, they are more or less visible - for example, the female of the Ptinus brunneus species shows characteristic scales, yellow in colour and narrower than in other species.

Table 1 - Ptinidae damaging the volumes under study from the old book deposit of the Agapia Monastery and from the museum of the Saint Nicholas Church at Şcheii Braşovului Experimental Order Family Genus Specie Synonymy station hololeucus Ptinus hololeucus Niptus Falderman Falderman,1835. Agapia 1836

Ptinidae Ptinus Coleoptera brunneus Ptinus testaceus Olivier, Agapia Duftschmid 1790; 1785 Ptinus clavipes Panzer, 33 1792; Ptinus hirtellus Sturm, Georgiana Gămălie and Mariana Mustaţă

1837; Ptinus rufus Lucas, 1847; Ptinus hirticollis Lucas, 1847; Ptinus adven Wollaston, 1854. raptor Agapia ,

Sturm 1837 Braşov Cerambyx fur Linné, 1758; Ptinus rapax De Geer, 1774; Ptinus germanus Goeze, fur Linné 1777 ; Agapia, 1758 Ptinus striatus Fabricius, Braşov 1792 ; Ptinus longipes Rossi, 1794; Ptinus quercus Comolii, 1837 . Ptinids are insects subjected to complete metamorphosis, developing along 4 stages, as follows: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The larva is scarabeiform, similar to the Anobiidae larvae, yet more supple and hairy, white-milky or white-ash-coloured. The cephalic capsule, yellow-brown and strongly chitinized, is smaller than the prothorax, which is sunk. The mouth parts, adapted for tearing and chewing, has strong mandibles with sharp teeth. The larvae produce a silky thread with which they build a pupal cocoon at the end of the feeding galleries or in their vicinity, at a distance of 1/2 cm, the adult remaining quite a long time inside this cocoon, prior to hatching. Both adults and larvae are heliophobic, the former ones leaving their hiding places only at night - which explains the name given to them, of "rogues". The adults' duration of life is longer than the development one, varying as a function of the food they consume, of temperature and humidity. This species produces 1-2 generations a year in unheated places and 2-3 ones, respectively, in spaces provided with heating systems, where they may be met even in winter, which explains, too, their longevity. Although the range of the optimum temperature values is quite large - e.g., between 23°C for Ptinus fur and 39°C, respectively, for Niptus hololeucus - the optimum value of RH for most of the species is of 70%. Consequently, for humidity values close to the optimum ones, hardly favourable temperature conditions will only prolongue the life cycle of such pests, by the occurrence of diapause periods under severe conditions, which will obviously result in an even more intense attack upon objects. 34 Damages produced by Ptinidae on the books of the ecclesiastical heritage

a

♀ b c d

♂ b c d Fig.1- Adults of the Niptus hololeucus (a) , Ptinus brunneus (b), Ptinus raptor (c) and Ptinus fur(d) species The insects now under study feed themselves with substances of vegetal or animal origin such as seeds, tobacco, bread, flour, wool, as well as paper, leather, tissues, up to even wood, cotton, feathers, collections of insects, stuffed birds, etc. The lesions caused by the Ptinidae larvae - occurring as galleries and orifices - are similar to those produced by Anobiidae. Such insects are developing especially in the vicinity of the cover, destroying both the paper and the binding. On the volumes' surface, the flight orifices of the adults that have left the substrate may be observed.

Case studies Book of the Hours, 1817 (Old book deposit of the Agapia Monastery) The Book of the Hours, or the Horologion, is a liturgical book of the Orthodox Church, a book of prayers and hymns in which the Psalms occupy a very special part. It includes the divine services for the seven canonical hours (Compline, Matins, 35 Georgiana Gămălie and Mariana Mustaţă

Vespers and the Office of the Hours), its name being related to the moment of day when the divine service is getting on. The Book of the Hours has been elaborated as early as the VIth century by several authors, among whom special mention is to be made of Sava (+581), John Damaschin (+749) and Theodore the Studite (+826).

Fig. 2 – The combined attack of 3 Ptinidae species on board, paper and leather

The volume, preserved at the Agapia Monastery, has board covers wrapped in decorated leather. The attack is directed mainly on the board cover and, to a lesser extent, on its leather wrapping and on the paper forming the body of the volume. The detrimental species are Ptinus raptor, P. fur and Niptus hololeucus, the occurrence of the attack being indicated by the dead adults, larval exuviae and dead larvae, eggs, excrements, characteristic pupal cocoons, as well as by galleries and orifices.

36 Damages produced by Ptinidae on the books of the ecclesiastical heritage

Fig. 3 – Adults of Ptinus raptor, P. fur and Niptus hololeucus found in galleries made in board

Euchologion, Bucureşti 1722 (Collection of rare books of the Saint Nicholas Church of Şcheii Braşovului) Euchologion or Ieratikon – the fundamental book of the Orthodox devotion - is the liturgical book including all the divine services accompanying Christian fellows from the cradle to the grave: the service of the sacraments and various divine services applied for the believers. The Ieratikon has been written down along hundreds of years, between the VIth and the IXth centuries, on the basis of the manuscripts of Saint Jacob, Saint Mark and of the Liturgy from the Apostolic Constitutions (Ist-IInd centuries), as well as from the Liturgies of the Three Great Parents of the Church: Saint Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory Dialogues (IVth- VI centuries). Antim Ivireanul translated and printed the Euchologion in 1709, at Târgovişte, a subsequent printing following, in 1722, in Bucureşti. A copy of that time, kept in the Church of Şcheii Braşovului, has been subjected to analysis as a case study. The book, printed on manual paper, has woody covers wrapped in leather, the metallic clasps of the covers being only partially preserved. The binding of the volume has been consolidated by the application of a leather patch, visibly different from the original one. The combined attack of the Ptinus fur and P. raptor species has been directed both upon the paper forming the body of the volume and on the covers’ leather, their presence being demonstrated by the dead adults and larvae found together with larval exuviae. Within the pages of the book, dead adults of Tribolium castaneum 37 Georgiana Gămălie and Mariana Mustaţă

(Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae), Anthrenus scrophulariae (Coleoptera, Dermestidae), as well as some pseudo-scorpions belonging to the Chelifer cancroides species (Arahnida class ), have been also observed.

Fig. 4- Aspects of the Ptinidae attack on the leather of the covers (the segment plotted stands for 10 mm)

Fig. 5 – Damages produced by Ptinus fur and P. raptor on the paper of the book

38 Damages produced by Ptinidae on the books of the ecclesiastical heritage

Inside the body of the volume, the deteriorations are concentrated in the vicinity of the binding, especially in the beginning and in the end of the book, the irregularly–shaped galleries being covered by pulverulent excrements. The considerable extent of deteriorations induced detaching of several leaves off the body of the book.

Pentecostarion (Old book store of the Agapia Monastery) The Pentecostarion is the liturgical book including all divine services held between Eastern and the Pentecost. It contains hymns and sacred songs expressing the joy of Resurrection, their elaboration being attributed to Saints Joseph the Studite, Cozma from Maiuma and John Damaschin (between the VIIIth and the IXth century). The volume, preserved at the Agapia Monastery, has board covers wrapped with decorated leather. Here, the attack of the Ptinus brunneus species has been evidenced by the presence of the two dead females found in the board. The attack was oriented especially towards the covers’ board, although there also appear deteriorations – provoked by adults on their hatching off the substrate – in the form of orifices in paper and leather.

Fig. 6 – Deteriorations provoked by larvae and adults of the Ptinus brunneus species on paper, board and leather 39 Georgiana Gămălie and Mariana Mustaţă

Conclusions The investigations performed on the old book fund at the Museum of the Saint Nicholas Church at Şcheii Braşovului and in the deposit of the Agapia Monastery put into evidence 4 species of coleopterans belonging to 2 genera of the Ptinidae family, for which a brief description has been provided. The damages they cause have been followed on 3 ecclesiastical books, namely: Book of the Hours (1817), Euchologion (1722) and Pentecostarion (1767) - also minutely described. As evidenced in the figures accompanying the observations made during the study, the damages induced by ptinids are significant, being evidenced on all types of materials forming the volumes. The conclusion to be drawn is that severe preventive and curative measures should be taken for a thorough control of such pests. A first step would be dusting of each volume in part and removal – by mechanical methods - of the insects (eggs, larvae, pupae, adults). Monitorization of the active presence of the damaging insects may be made by means of pheromonal traps, measures of effective combat being indicated only in the case of a highly intense attack. Also, setting of the microclimatic parameters at values known as preventing the development of molds and of ptinids, is recommended.

Bibliography

1. Branişte, Pr. Ene; Branişte, Ecaterina, 2001 - Dicţionar enciclopedic de cunoştinţe religioase, Editura Diecezană Caransebeş, p. 97-98, 309, 363 2. Bellés, Xavier, 1978 - Miscel.lània Zoològica, vol IV, fasc. 2, Muzeul de Zoologie, Barcelona, p.87-123 3. Brown, W. J., 1940 - The Canadian Entomologist, 72; p. 115 – 122 4. Howe, R. W.; Burges, H. D., 1951 - Bull. Ent. Research. 42 (3): 499-511 + pl. XVI 5. Kozulina, O.V., 1973 - Probleme de patologie a cărţii, vol. 7, Bucureşti, p.143-158. 6. Mustaţă, M., 2001 - Insecte dăunătoare cărţilor, Editura Corson, 152pp 7. Weidner, Herbert, 1993 - Bestimmungstabellen der Vorratsschädlinge und des Hausungeziefers Mitteleuropas, 5. Auflage, Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart, Jena, New York, p.40-54,108-126,145-157,191-222.

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