French market vocabulary· French
Xylophages
In English use: Wood-eating insects
Wood-eating insects (termites, certain beetle larvae) — their traces are not damage but biographical record.
Wood-eating insects, in French expert vocabulary precisely named xylophages (Greek xulon "wood" + phagein "to eat"). In particular termites and the larvae of various beetles. Their narrow tunnels through a sculpture are part of its biography, not damage to be repaired.
A piece rongé par les insectes xylophages (gnawed by xylophages) is read alongside érosion du temps as a sign of long shrine service or outdoor sacralisation, lending the work the gravitas of a near-geological formation.