Anobiid Beetles belong to the beetle family Anobiidae. The Anobiids are often referred to as Furniture Beetles or Deathwatch Beetles.

The name furniture beetle was deserved in a time when these insects could be found infesting tables, chairs, cabinets, benches and bed headboards and footboards made of pine, poplar and other soft wood types. For some species, the name of deathwatch beetle comes from the tapping sound they make by striking their mandibles (jaws) against the wood surface of their tunnel as a mating call. Heard in the quiet of the night when people were sitting up with an ill person, this tapping was superstitiously believed to indicate that death was near.

They are worldwide in distribution, with about 310 species occurring in the United States, the majority of which feed on dead wood. In the United States hey are found primarily throughout the eastern United States and the West Coast. They are most common in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest. Two species of Anobiid beetles: the cigarette beetle (Lasioderma serricorne) and the drugstore beetle (Stegobium paniceum) are important pests of stored food products and do not feed on wood at all.

The Anobiid beetles attack mostly sapwood, but can extend their attacks into heartwood, and they attack both hardwoods and softwoods.

Anobiids range from 1.1 mm to 8 mm (1/16 to 3/8 inch ) in length, and are highly variable in body form, ranging from narrow and elongate to nearly circular from the dorsal aspect. When viewed from above, the hoodlike or "bellshaped" pronotum usually conceals the head, as in the case of the Bostrichidae and Ptinidae, but is unlike that of the true powder-post beetles (Lyctidae), in which the head is not hidden when viewed from above. The last 3 segments of the antennae are usually lengthened and broadened, or simply lengthened, but in some species the antennae are either serrate (sawtoothed) or pectinate (combshaped).

Structure-infesting species usually have distinct rows of pits on the elytra (hardened front wings or wing covers) giving their surface a ridged appearance The tarsi are 5-segmented, with divaricate (widely separated) claws. Mature larvae of anobiid powderpost beetles range from 3/16 to about 1/2 inch long. They are nearly white in color, C-shaped in form but have the thorax enlarged.