BUFFALO=BUGS. 



These are the Buffalo-moths or -bugs and 

 Anthrenus 



some are the worst enemies of entomological 

 collections. A. musceorum has only 8 joints in each an- 

 tenna, including the two-jointed club, and the outline of 

 the eyes is not indented. It is found on flowers but is 

 not a frequent visitor in houses. The following species 

 have ii joints in each antenna, including a three-jointed 

 club, and, except for verbasci, the outline of eyes is in- 

 dented. The pronotum of A. verbasci is black, the central 

 part sparsely clothed with yellow scales, the sides more 

 densely with white ones; elytra black, with a large basal 

 ring and two transverse, zigzag bands of white scales 

 bordered by yellow ones; under surface of abdomen clothed 

 with fine, long, grayish-yellow scales. It is the common 

 museum pest. A. scrophularia is the Buffalo Moth. 

 The elytra have brick-red, or dull yellow, markings as 

 shown in Plate LXXVI. I do not know why this genus is 

 connected, by name, with the buffalo, unless the larva 

 has a fancied resemblance to that animal. Possibly it 

 got its nickname by being destructive of buffalo-robes in 

 the days when there were such things. The species 

 frequently injure carpets, but are also found on flowers. 

 They breed in organic matter, presumably in outbuildings 

 or outdoors as well as within, fly to the flowers and may 

 then, in the case of the Carpet-beetle at least, be carried 

 into dwellings before eggs are deposited. Infested carpets 

 should be taken up, thoroughly cleaned, and, if badly 

 infested, sprayed with benzine. Local injury can fre- 

 quently be stopped by passing a hot iron over a damp 

 cloth laid on the affected part of the carpet. 



The habits of this creature are not those 



y . 1 of other Dermestidae but, in view of the 



unicolor 



fact that adults of most of the other species 

 mentioned here regularly leave hides and hair for a sojourn 

 among flowers, it may be retaining the ancestral activities. 

 The adult is about .14 in. long, reddish-yellow or reddish- 

 brown, and covered with a thick coat of pale, tawny hairs. 

 It appears about the middle of May and feeds on the 

 flower-buds and tender foliage of red raspberries. The 

 larva is plump, white, with tawny cross-bands and numer- 



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