378 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



genera (except Dermestes) have an ocellus on the front. These beetles, together with 

 their larva?, feed upon a variety of substances, both animal and vegetable. Some of the 

 species are the most dangerous of museum-pests ; others attack food in the pantry, 

 store, or warehouse ; drugs do not escape their attack, species devouring even can- 

 tharides and tobacco ; woollen and silk goods, feathers, and furs are ruined if left long 

 exposed to their depredations; and one species is accused of biting young doves. 

 The Dermestidae feign death, and do it so skilfully and for so long a time that they 

 are sometimes left for dead, only to escape and renew their depredations. Their oval 

 larvae, which do more injury than the beetles, are usually covered with long brown 

 hair, and in some cases these hairs are beautiful spear-like objects for microscopical 

 examination. The larvae moult a larger number of times than is commonly the case 

 with beetle larvae, probably eight or more times. 



Dermestes lardarius, the bacon-beetle, which is about 0.3 of an inch long, is 

 brownish black, except the anterior half of the elytra, which are gray, spotted with 

 black. This beetle has become cosmopolitan. It eats wool, silk, hair, horn, hoofs, and 

 other substances, and often attacks neglected collections of insects. Its larva is about 

 0.45 of an inch long, and tapers somewhat from the anterior toward the posterior end. 

 This larva was first described by Goedart, in 1667, and has been redescribed since that 

 time by many entomologists. 



The species of Attagenus are generally smaller and less elongated than those of 

 Dermestes. They have an ocellus on the front, the middle coxae are near together, the 

 prosternum is not lobed anteriorly, and the antennas are eleven-jointed. A.pelllo is 

 about 0.2 of an inch long, and dark brown with a white dot near the middle of each 

 elytron. The abdomen of its larva ends in a pencil of long hairs. A. megatoma, and 

 possibly at times other species of the genus, are the cause of a kind of felting of 

 pillows and bed-ticks that is often a puzzle for housewives. These insects, having 

 gained access to the inside of abed-tick, breed in it, and bite off pieces of the feathers. 

 These pieces, on accoiint of the rolling and tumbling to which they are subjected in 

 the bed, are driven, basal end first, into the ticking, where they are retained by the 

 barbed nature of their tip, all of the branehlets pointing backwards. What is curious 

 about this felting, which resembles mole-skin, is its remarkable evenness and beauty. 

 A piece, from which I saw r a sample several years ago, was made up into a lady's 

 cloak, and suggested the possibility of producing this kind of dress-goods by using 

 flock-cuttei-s and fulling-mills to replace the slow processes by which this piece was 

 made. 



Anthrenus has been long well known to most collectors of plants and animals, and 

 has lately introduced itself in America to the unwilling recognition of housewives. 

 Two species, A. varim* and A. musceorum, neither of them much larger than a good- 

 sized pin-head, are the best-known museum-pests. They 

 are gray spotted with light brown. The beetles gain 

 access to collections, and deposit their eggs upon in- 

 sects, stuffed animals, and other dried animal matter. 

 The larva when hatched bores into the specimens, often- 

 times completely riddling or ruining them, and finally 



. Anthreiiii*isaiorum, pupates within them. Their presence in collections 



of insects is betrayed by the debris which falls from 



the specimens attacked. To keep museum-pests from collections, resort is made 

 to camphor, carbolic acid, naphthalin, and many other substances, which are kept 



