Bad Insects for Documentary Legacy of Archives and Libraries: Diagnosis of Two Cases in the Republic of Cuba and the Argentine Republic

Abstract

The “bibliophagous” group of insects finds their food source in libraries and archives, mostly feeding on the cellulose in the books, the glue used to bind them and mold. A diagnosis was made of the impact caused by bibliophagous insects on the National Archives of the Republic of Cuba and on the Library at the La Plata Museum in Argentina. As a result, two types of damage caused by insects were detected: the ones that dig holes in galleries and pierce book spines, and those that scrape the surface or feed on book binding glue or mold. The first group includes beetles of the order Coleoptera, and beetles of the families Anobiidae and Dermestidae. The second group includes insects of the orders Blattaria (cockroaches), Isoptera (termites), Psocoptera (booklice) and Zygentoma (silverfish)