deathwatch

noun

• 1a vigil kept beside a dead or dying individual.
• a guard set over a person due for execution.

• 2 (also deathwatch beetle) a small beetle with larvae that bore into dead wood and structural timbers, causing considerable damage. The adult makes a sound like a watch ticking that was formerly believed to portend death.

  • Xestobium rufovillosum, family Anobiidae