By forcibly striking its head against woodwork it makes a ticking sound, which is a call of the sexes to each other, but has been imagined by superstitious people to presage death
Any one of several beetles of the family Anobiidae, especially Xestobium rufovillosum, whose head makes a clicking sound as it burrows into wood or wooden structures. The sound was superstitiously regarded as a portent of death. Borer insect (beetle species Xestobium refuvillosum) that tends to be small (less than 0.5 in., or 1-9 mm) and cylindrical. When disturbed, it usually pulls in its legs and plays dead. It makes a ticking or clicking sound by bumping its head or jaws against the sides of the tunnels it creates as it bores into old furniture and wood, a sound that, according to superstition, forecasts a death